Tag Archives: Daily Rundown

This is your SolarWakeup for September 3rd, 2020

Duke’s IRP. Duke filed their IRP and gave regulators a menu of options to choose from but in many ways is telling the story that they want to tell. The way it reads to me is this, let us build more gas, stop our coal plants when we want and we’ll do some solar and storage along the way. Less gas and closed coal means big expensive options for consumers is the headline that the utility wants to see in the news. Good thing for consumers and the solar market is that solar advocates are becoming experts in IRP dockets. This is the opening salvo, watch this space for more updates along the way. I even heard rumors that advocates are doing a special website to cover this.

A Regulators View On CA. Former FERC commissioner, Cheryl LaFleur, breaks down the energy situation in California in 5 categories. This is a macro view of the problem without delving into some of the micro issues that have riled up energy twitter or when Trump talks about the topic. The counterpoint comes from Sunrun’s Lynn Jurich on the impact resi solar can have.

The Fallout. This is the decision we have to make in this decade. Solve the problems on our grid with more resilient infrastructure close to the demand or leave generation in place that has already reached the end of its useful life. Microgrids versus capacity contract extensions, that’s the argument in a nutshell.

Benefits Of Retail Energy. Here is what happens when you combine Peter Thiel, bitcoin, data center, heat wave, no wind and competitive power markets. A bitcoin mine back by Thiel in Texas had a clause in their retail energy contract that let it sell back their energy by powering down their consumption and reap the benefits from the trade. Funny story of the day.

The Savings Commence. Yesterday, an installer saved over $10,000 buying modules through the Buyer’s Group, it costs you money not taking a look and calculating your savings. If you’re curious about our price list, hit reply or take the price discovery.

Sell More Solar with CollectiveSun. My friends at CollectiveSun know Nonprofits. They know that Nonprofits are looking for three things when going solar: a simple and user friendly process, the ability to utilize tax benefits, and access to funding that doesn’t break the bank. CollectiveSun can help you give them all that and more. These days, more than ever, Nonprofits are looking to lower their operating expenses. CollectiveSun will help you generate more sales and will work with you to become the go-to solar installer for Nonprofits. Click here to learn more about working with CollectiveSun.

Opinion

Best, Yann

This is your SolarWakeup for September 2nd, 2020

Storage For Big Dollars. NextEra has changed over the years and will now be going all in on energy storage to the tunes of billions of dollars. As FERC 841 gets implemented look to storage to make innovation happen not only on the technology side but capital deployment, trading and policy fronts as well.

Win Then Govern. You can’t govern until you’ve won the election, this is one of the biggest sins of campaigns that never get to govern. Climate change activists wants a hard commitment from Joe Biden to ban fossil fuel reps in the administration and take stronger stances against fossil fuels during the campaign. Here’s what I would recommend instead, be involved in the campaign or support group like Clean Energy for Biden and then apply for the job yourself. Not every fossil fuel rep is Scott Pruitt or Rick Perry, we have former folks from natural gas in solar today, coal workers on rooftops and subprime bond originators in project finance. No purity tests for me, win first and then advocate for change from the inside.

The Southeast RTO. Next week’s podcast will be with the author of the report on the benefits of having a power market in the Southeast. What is most interesting about the concept to you and what questions do you want the answers to?

New Products, Better Pricing. The SolarWakeup Buyer’s Group has an updated price list for members now available saving them money and giving them price transparency on products they buy every day. If you’re curious about joining, hit reply or take the price challenge.

Sell More Solar with CollectiveSun. My friends at CollectiveSun know Nonprofits. They know that Nonprofits are looking for three things when going solar: a simple and user friendly process, the ability to utilize tax benefits, and access to funding that doesn’t break the bank. CollectiveSun can help you give them all that and more. These days, more than ever, Nonprofits are looking to lower their operating expenses. CollectiveSun will help you generate more sales and will work with you to become the go-to solar installer for Nonprofits. Click here to learn more about working with CollectiveSun.

Opinion

Best, Yann

This is your SolarWakeup for September 1st, 2020

Quick Rundown. It was my youngest 4th birthday yesterday and my day got away from me so here’s some thoughts for the day. All of your marketing teams should be sending news to SolarWakeup when great things happen at your company.

Shorting The Planet. The EPA is basically making coal generation a market without any rules. It would seem to me that any operator would not follow the new rules knowing that eventually this will come back to haunt them, something that I’ll mention in the paragraph below and have written about in the past.

Who Bans Fracking. Biden, in his speech yesterday, said he does not want to ban fracking. Banning fracking is bad politics to begin with, it’s also as silly politically as banning nuclear given that the markets are going to make away with it. Before you throw me into environmental jail, Biden didn’t say that he wouldn’t direct the EPA, DOJ and regulators to ensure strict adherence to existing and new environmental regulations. Leaky methane from the wells? Clean it up. Contaminated water wells? Clean it up. If you can’t, don’t or won’t then the admin is coming for you. My two cents on this.

The Pipelines In Waiting. The headline in Pennsylvania is replaceable for every State in America. Solar and storage development pipelines are growing and it would be great to have legislators understand how to clear those pipeline and get the projects in the ground. Pennsylvania is a good example of how very little legislative action would do a lot to get into the right direction.

Retail Energy Plus PPA. What happens when you sign a C&I customer up to a retail energy contract, PPA for solar and onsite generator in the same deal? Find out in my latest podcast.

Sell More Solar with CollectiveSun. My friends at CollectiveSun know Nonprofits. They know that Nonprofits are looking for three things when going solar: a simple and user friendly process, the ability to utilize tax benefits, and access to funding that doesn’t break the bank. CollectiveSun can help you give them all that and more. These days, more than ever, Nonprofits are looking to lower their operating expenses. CollectiveSun will help you generate more sales and will work with you to become the go-to solar installer for Nonprofits. Click here to learn more about working with CollectiveSun.

Opinion

Best, Yann

This is your SolarWakeup for August 31st, 2020

Solar Market Survey.  Last day to Take The Survey Make sure that your situation is part of the poll. You can hear the results on the market update call tomorrow morning at 10am, register for that here.

NEM 3.0 In Your Inbox. The CPUC Is taking up net metering in a new docket. This isn’t a surprise but kicks off the yearlong fight over solar’s role in the California grid. Utilities are already pushing phone op-eds and arguments while the value of DG has never been great and more apparent in the State hammed by wildfires and grid issues. Stay tuned for more on this as the year moves on.

The C&I Riddle. In this week’s podcast I talk with the CEO of Catalyst Power, a returning guest to SolarWakeup. Catalyst is backed by BP Energy Partners and is taking their knowledge of retail energy for C&I customers and adding solar and on-site generation to their offering. By combining retail energy services with onsite generation, Catalyst says they can finance more projects more efficiently, hedging their risk while maximizing value to the building owner.

Maine Is For Solar. The infrastructure team at the Carlyle group is in for a 100MW+ project in Maine. Latitudes in Maine can reach the northernmost in the continental US and be north of Montreal. We are reaching a geographic saturation when it comes to where you can develop solar. Someone do the analysis for me on Alaska, what would a QF contract have to look to make that happen?

DG Value Stacking. This publication has written about the real reason we think net metering is the right way to make solar work for homeowners, it’s not the rate it’s the simplicity. In reality, if distributed solar and storage were able to capture and/or participate in value creation in dynamic markets, rooftop solar would actually generate far more than it does under net metering. For every cost the grid assumes for hosting dg solar, it generates twice the value that is neither counter or monetized. It took many years for solar to get to this cost standpoint but now that the cost is below other generation, a free market that prices all the layers is ideal for the industry.

Big EV Times Two. CPUC approves a half of a billion for EV infrastructure and Amazon order 1,800 electric vans from Mercedes. We’re done with pilot programs?

Do You Shop Green? You work in solar, and while we all have a different level of sustainability in our personal lives, do you reward the businesses you purchase goods and services from if they show green behavior? Do you pay more for sustainable practices voluntarily? I’m interested in your take in this.

Sell More Solar with CollectiveSun. My friends at CollectiveSun know Nonprofits. They know that Nonprofits are looking for three things when going solar: a simple and user friendly process, the ability to utilize tax benefits, and access to funding that doesn’t break the bank. CollectiveSun can help you give them all that and more. These days, more than ever, Nonprofits are looking to lower their operating expenses. CollectiveSun will help you generate more sales and will work with you to become the go-to solar installer for Nonprofits. Click here to learn more about working with CollectiveSun.

Opinion

Best, Yann