Tag Archives: Daily Rundown

This is your SolarWakeup for November 17th, 2020

Big Rundown, Highlights. The news are deep today, so let’s do some quick summaries of what you need to know today. Starting off, not solar related but you’re running a business in the strangest times ever. There are now two vaccines likely to start circulating in the near future. How do you plan on managing your business through the current spike of the virus and do you expect to ask your employees to get the vaccine, if so in what situation? What would you do if your employer asks you to get vaccinated? This isn’t a political statement, I’m going to ask you to give me feedback so that others may learn from your responses. 

It’s Growing, Fast. 2021 and 2022 are likely to grow at greater than 25% while 2020 will end with 15% growth according to the panelists in the last Roth Capital market call. The next call will take place in mid-December.

Utilities Saved By Renewables. EDF and RWE are some of the largest utilities in Europe that are largely calling themselves clean companies and saving their shareholders with growth in renewable energy. Not much different here in the US. This will arrive at the oil majors as well. 

Mainstream Solar Fights. We talk about regulatory fights in the solar industry all the time on SolarWakeup. Last night, the Property Brothers took up the issue with their documentary that ran on PBS. Catch a rerun in the link.

The IPO That Put Solar On Stage. Array Technologies caught the capital markets by surprise, revenue with growth, amazing EBITDA and a pipeline that can be described without non-GAAP addendums to the financials. It also put solar on the stage while creating the first solar billionaire. In a few hours, Flex, the company that acquired NEXTracker, is being interviewed in the RBC investor day. RBC asked the first question at the last Flex earnings call and asked if Flex was considering a spinout of NEXT given their global market share leadership. I have a guess to what the first question is going to be, and maybe what the first headline of the Wakeup will be tomorrow.

The Magnetar Trade. One of the smartest shops on Wall Street has acquired the Lendlease development platform that already has 3GW+ in the pipeline. 

Tesla Joins SP500. In case you’re wondering why Tesla stock is through the roof today. They will join the S&P 500 in late December.

Bezos Look At Solar. I’ve said it before, solar goes farther with policy dollars to solve climate change than any other dollar invested in policy. Bezos could and should put 9 digits into groups like Vote Solar and you’ll cut the half life of natural gas generation in half.

Spotlight On Community Clinic. This 412 kW-DC solar carport installation at Vista Community Clinic (VCC) will provide long term renewable energy for the sustainability-driven healthcare facility. M Bar C Construction, CollectiveSun, and VCC leadership joined together in bringing this system from funding to design to installation. Solar energy produced from the installation will free up facility resources allowing VCC to continue to serve their patients and the surrounding community while setting a powerful example of their commitment to renewable energy. 

Opinion

Best, Yann

This is your SolarWakeup for November 16th, 2020

The Leadership Outlook. SunPower’s CEO, Tom Werner, may have the most direct, yet politically correct statement about the Biden victory. When asked about the fact that Biden isn’t a climate denier Werner said,” It helps a lot.” He goes on to add that a stable regulatory environment would be a great benefit to the solar market. This is in line with what I got from my conversation with Abby Hopper, the CEO of SEIA. That is why everyone is working hard on the ITC extension now, businesses have to plan in a way that takes the peak and cliff away from the strategy side.

Buy What You’re Selling. If you were on our resi market call last week you heard me say that solar companies need to start believing in their own growth. The solar market is in one of the tightest supply markets I’ve seen since 2007 mostly because manufacturers were nervous about the COVID effect on market demand and forecasts were cut to 2GW when in reality we will pass 3GW and have Q1 and Q2 reach all-time highs. No matter the size of your solar company, you should be thinking about ordering now for Q1 and Q2 deliveries. Manufacturers should be running their businesses as if the ITC has already been extended, time to buy into our own market.

The Maps In The Oval. Joe Biden is going to look at the energy transition from a big picture perspective, like the smart grid map that he talks about. The map that Madam Vice President Harris will look at is what Axios is reporting on today, local pollution at the neighborhood level. The Environment Defense Fund has been doing methane measurements across the Country that do similar data visualization. The local pollution maps are going to drive the legal strategy for showing that polluters harm minority and low-income communities to a much higher degree than others. For the handful of coal plants that are still without retirement dates and weaker plants sitting in neighborhoods, watch for those to be replaced by energy storage before the end of the first term.

Solar Steel. Nucor, the steel manufacturer, has signed a 250MW PPA with EDF Renewables in Texas. This should be the steel going into all the trackers and C&I racking equipment, good old American made steel with American sunshine. In Texas. Are we mainstream yet?

Will The MOPR Go SWOPR? The MOPR was an attempt by the Trump team to upend local energy markets to prop up coal and gas plants against solar and wind projects. There was hope for a national 100% RPS but that is unlikely in a GOP Senate or even a 51-49 Dem senate. Perhaps the opposite of a MOPR, executive action towards solar and wind is possible if some adjustments to FERC are made. It still would find opposition from State and regional energy markets but likely align with their goals more than that MOPR ever did.

Spotlight On Community Clinic. This 412 kW-DC solar carport installation at Vista Community Clinic (VCC) will provide long term renewable energy for the sustainability-driven healthcare facility. M Bar C Construction, CollectiveSun, and VCC leadership joined together in bringing this system from funding to design to installation. Solar energy produced from the installation will free up facility resources allowing VCC to continue to serve their patients and the surrounding community while setting a powerful example of their commitment to renewable energy. 

Opinion

Best, Yann

This is your SolarWakeup for November 13th, 2020

Market Analysis Conference Call. In a few hours you can join me and other solar pros as we talk about the the current state of the solar market. We’ll talk about the election, ITC, supply chain shortages and more. Call is open to anyone for free, you can register here. 

The Top 3 Policies. I asked Abby Hopper what the top three policy issues were in the next Congress and White House. First was the ITC, getting it extended and hopefully back to 30% with the addition of energy storage. Second was trade, fixing it and improving it to make domestic manufacturing thrive. Third came in two parts but with the same intention of putting more solar under the sun. 3a is the lack of efficiency in the interconnection process for solar farms, we’ve talked about how bad the interconnection queues are right now. 3b is permitting for residential solar, with the goal of making it digital, standardized and instant. Listen to the whole conversation here.

Trillion Dollar Voice. This is a big deal, BlackRock’s Larry Fink is publicly backing mandatory climate reporting by corporations. This is a risk issue, companies that have thousands of employees in a single location for example could be at risk if a natural disaster becomes more common. It also ensures that companies are thinking about future regulatory issues around pollution and explaining to investors what steps they are taking to mitigate this.

Ford And Rivian Week. Rivian is releasing their configurator next week if you put the deposit down and the week after if you haven’t. The 300 mile range SUV and pickup truck definitely has my eye from an appeal standpoint, they definitely should let me get a press ride in. More relevant to many of you, Ford announce an electric version of their popular work van, Transit. Around $50k for the  125 mile range work vehicle could be ideal for solar installers.

Enjoy Your Weekend! Have Friday the 13th! Check out the Buyer’s Group price list if you haven’t 

Opinion

Best, Yann

This is your SolarWakeup for November 12th, 2020

Post Election Interview. As promised, yesterday I spoke with SEIA’s CEO, Abby Hopper. SEIA and the solar industry have to maneuver a divided government in an effort to move solar forward for the solar+ decade. We talk about the ITC extension, trade issues and improving interconnection/permitting issues for all parts of solar. You can find the podcast on your favorite stream or here.

Post Election Market Update. On Friday you can join me on Roth Capital’s solar market update call. Register for that here as we talk about politics, supply chain constraints and just how fast the market is growing.

Biden Makes Moves. The President-elect named his long time advisor and former ebola czar as the next White House Chief of Staff. Ron Klein has been Biden’s COS before and knows where the keys to the situation room are. There are names floating for cabinet members and also the idea of creating a climate czar or climate department. Governor Inslee, recently reelected, is often the name that comes up when discussing a climate leader but don’t get too lost in the headline names. The key is to find the staff that get into the weeds of the policy. I’m more interested in the chief of staff to the FERC commissioners or the legislative affairs director for energy policy than the climate czar. Be patient, hiring will happen over the next two months.

The Smart Grid Poster. It’s not the most exciting topic but interconnection queues are well over 100GW and the cost to upgrade the grid is getting higher every day. There is a misaligned interest between the grid operator and generators while the grid is in bad shape. It was built decades ago and that is why there was a map of a 21st century smart grid in Joe Biden’s office as Vice President. Also, think of where this grid would be built. Tens of billions of dollars would be invested in a lot of the states that have republican representation in the Senate. Biden is going to want FERC to get RTOs to clear queues and let wind and solar projects move forward. Maybe we will have infrastructure week coming soon after all.

Buy Smarter. Solar products don’t get to installers in a straight line. It goes through layers, packaging, repackaging, unloading and reloading of containers to get to its final destination. Most of the time, installers pay more than double than the original cost to manufacturer because of those inefficiencies. Plus the pricing for products is not transparent which makes one installer pay more than the next. Take some of that inefficiency out of the process by joining the SolarWakeup Buyer’s Group, a membership organization that puts the purchasing power back in installers’ hands. Find out more at solarwakeup.com/pricing

Opinion

Best, Yann