Tag Archives: Daily Rundown

This is your SolarWakeup for August 28th, 2020

Solar Market Survey.  Please take 3 minutes and fill out our survey looking at the current state of the solar market. Take The Survey Survey ends on Monday, your participation is valuable. 

Dream Job In Solar. HR pros in solar that want to work for a great team while tackling the issues of our times like climate and inequality. Vote Solar is hiring a director of talent and culture, you can see the job description and apply here.

The SunPower Spin. SunPower and Maxeon have completed their spin-off and are now separate companies trading on the public markets, SPWR and MAXN. Now SunPower starts its path to competing in the Sunrun, Sunnova and Vivint Solar track of public companies, best of luck to the SunPower team in the new era.

Bailey Bridge Of Gas. It seems that we are acknowledging the end of coal and moving to a discussion about the future of gas. Here is the CEO of ConEd Wednesday, “We made those investments five to seven years ago, and at that time we — and frankly many others — viewed natural gas as having a fairly large role in the transition to the clean energy economy,” McAvoy said. “That view has largely changed, and natural gas, while it can provide emissions reductions, is no longer … part of the longer-term view,” particularly in the U.S. Northeast where state regulators have blocked pipeline projects.” Add the report out of LA that the single gas plant has been leaking methane for several years at the rate of 30,000 cars. The discussion of gas as part of the future portfolio is upon us.

Climate And A Second Term. This is meant to be inflammatory and a single issue discussion that I’d like to have someone take the opposite side of. What happens to the fight against climate change under a second Trump term? We’ve seen the FERC policies that were pushed to prop up coal and nuclear in the MOPR. An ITC extension squashed by this White House. We’ve seen environmental rules challenged or removed. A push to drill in ANWR and off the coast of Florida. In solar, the market has grown in spite of tariff on tariff that has doubled the cost of solar modules, increased the cost on inverters and racking. Meanwhile racking manufacturing is leaving the US not coming back and inverter factories are just moving to a different offshore Country. As I said yesterday, solar should be supported by both parties but that is not the case and is not, in my opinion, something that Trump wants to see more of. When it comes to fighting climate change and creating millions of jobs in our sectors, a second Trump term will be troubling.

Have a great weekend!

Buyer’s Group Price Challenge. Installers across the Country are saving money with the Buyer’s Group, like modules under $0.40/watt. Take the price challenge today and discover your savings. 

Opinion

Best, Yann

This is your SolarWakeup for August 27th, 2020

Solar Market Survey.  Please take 3 minutes and fill out our survey looking at the current state of the solar market. Take The Survey 

Watching Hurricane Laura. In a nearly identical track to Hurricane Katrina (Laura is sparing South Florida), a massive category 4 hurricane with a storm surge described as unsurvivable by the national hurricane center is hitting the Gulf Coasts of Texas and Louisiana. The surge has a chance of reaching 30 miles inland which makes me ponder the idea of living 0.25 miles from the Altantic. I hope those of you reading this in the path of the storm are preparing yourself and doing what you can to stay safe, we’ll be here for you afterwards. Next week, there will be talk about the need for infrastructure that is distributed because we will also see the images of thousands of utility trucks heading to the region for mutual aid and rebuilding the wood poles that we can our electric infrastructure.

My Hope, Via Miami Mayor. The Mayor of Miami is a republican which isn’t notable by itself. What is notable is that Mayor Suarez went on Axios yesterday and said that the republican party needs to change its position on the environment. You can’t look at hurricane Laura and think what if that hits Miami today, Hurricane Andrew was a wind event but if that happened today the water damage would be catastrophic and the Mayor knows that. So I ask this, what is it going to take for national republicans to stand up and say that we need to put solar on every home in America?

The Northeastern Response To Blackouts. After a storm that is out of the control of a utility, southern states are used to losing power for days or weeks. Everyone knows it could happen and that’s why homes on hospital grids go for more money. No regulator or even consumer blames the utility so it was a surprise to me to see Governors of New York and Connecticut be outraged at the utility response to Hurricane Isaias. Maybe utilities should do more planning and include disaster mitigation and response in their IRP which would likely yield better investments.

Solar Plus Plus Plus. Wildfires, snow storms, hurricanes, heat wave are just a few of the big items that seem to be pushing our grid to the edge. When the connection between your house or apartment to the wood pole outside breaks, you are on your own. Your food goes bad, medical devices go on critical backup and you can no longer cool your home. We reached a million solar rooftops in California late last year and CALSSA embarked on a million solar batteries earlier this year but the future is well above 1 million given the external factors facing us today and the tailwind of regulator support that calls for more deployment of distributed resource. Much more on this coming.

Roth Capital Market Update. Next Tuesday at 10am Eastern, join me and others on the Roth Capital solar market update. You can register here. 

Buyer’s Group Price Challenge. Installers across the Country are saving money with the Buyer’s Group, like modules under $0.40/watt. Take the price challenge today and discover your savings. 

Opinion

Best, Yann

This is your SolarWakeup for August 26th, 2020

Solar Market Survey. The August survey is now available and I hope you participate in responding. This is an important Q3 checkin and outlines the Q4 opportunities ahead.

Roth Capital Market Update. Next Tuesday at 10am Easter, join me and others on the Roth Capital solar market update. You can register (free) here.

Farewell Exxon. A few years ago Exxon was the most valuable company by market cap in the world and the CEO was en route to being the Secretary of State. Now Exxon has lost over half of its market cap and removed from the Dow Jones Industrial Average where it has been for 92 years. That leaves Chevron as the sole remaining oil company in the average. I’m not on a strategic committee at the oil companies but the fact that none of them have bought a utility or entered electric generation or EV infrastructure in a meaningful way is dumbfounding.

PURPA Fights In Big Sky. Solar developers have won a ruling at the Montana Supreme Court regarding their complaint that regulators didn’t follow PURPA rules when they cut the contract value and terms for qualifying facilities. I like it when solar fights go to unusual places and win.

All Eyes On Senate. The Senate released a report titled “The Case For Climate Action: Building a Clean Economy for the American People.” Obvious problem with the report is that it only comes from the Democrats in the Senate not the full body, an unfortunate sign of the times. Senator Schatz (Hawaii-D) sat down with Vox’s David Roberts to go through the report. One note to watch post November, will Senator Manchin keep his chairmanship of the Energy committee or will he be upgraded to something else. The democrats will maneuver this sensitive area because they can’t go Joshua Lyman on Senator Manchin and risk a party switch. On the other hand, Manchin is the most conservative member of the caucus and could hold up critical work on climate change if the democrats have the majority.

A Southeastern RTO. An interesting idea but with the most powerful monopolies in the Country operating in the Southeast, consider this a pipe dream (for now). 

Puerto Rico’s Opportunity. Puerto Rico is adopting a renewables based plan instead of gas generation, which makes sense given the complexities in keeping the transmission stable on the island during hurricanes. I know many on the mainland are keen to work with Puerto Rico and executing on the strategy.

Buyer’s Group Price Challenge. Installers across the Country are saving money with the Buyer’s Group, like modules under $0.40/watt. Take the price challenge today and discover your savings.

Opinion

Best, Yann

This is your SolarWakeup for August 25th, 2020

The Need And Value Of DG To Utility Scale. Yesterday the California legislature passed SB 364, a bill that only matters if a proposition is passed by voters in November. Assuming the Governor signs the bill, which he is expected to, the bill ensures that C&I and utility scale solar are not crushed by new property taxes. This is where the value of a strong state chapter like CALSSA came in. This is why utility scale solar and distributed generation are aligned in advocacy and market development. Without the help of DG and state advocates this bill would have failed passage. It took the collective push of all to ensure success. Sometimes not all things have to directly benefit you to benefit you in the long run, if homeowners can’t put solar on their homes and business do you think they will help advance policies that allow large scale solar to be built? Will politicians help an industry that leaves their constituents behind? I hope this is an event that brings solar closer together and maybe as a sign of goodwill, brings utility scale companies into the CALSSA membership. It’s a big tent and you just saw what it’s worth to you.

The Politics Of CA Blackouts. Trump is politicizing the blackouts in California, taking the talking point of a green dream causing terrible grid harm. Grid operators have said that a 500mw plant going offline unexpectedly was the final trigger on the issues. It was the help of consumers and a call for aid from consumers to reduce consumption that kept the issues from cascading from there. The details won’t stop the White House from trying to tie renewables to instability, even regulators that know better are jumping on this and ex-Enron folks are eager to rewrite history from circa 2000.

Old Generations Versus New Price Signals. The major shift regulators need to take up immediately is a new price signal for demand reduction, to shape consumer demand in times of need. Shaping demand based on consumer behavior is a major market challenge but startups like OhmConnect have shown that given the right price signal, consumers will adapt. Pricing that allows opportunities for DG storage to operate in a distribute environment could give California over 5GW of flex capacity without the need to contract for it upfront just by providing an opportunity to generate value. This is a forward looking method as opposed to keeping existing plants ready for closure open.

Twitter Talks DOE. Less than a 100 days until the election and energy twitter is equal parts working hard to elect Biden while also giddy at the thought of filing the cabinets, especially DOE. While DOE does great work on R&D and advancing solar soft cost reductions, DOE is primarily the department of nuclear energy including being responsible for the nuclear stockpile. The EPA is where pollution, clean air and water reside but it is less powerful as an administration not department. For what it’s worth, my pick for DOE Secretary is Governor Granholm, an early adopter of solar policies and solar manufacturing in Michigan.

Buyer’s Group Price Challenge. Installers across the Country are saving money with the Buyer’s Group. Take the price challenge today. 

Opinion

Best, Yann