Looking At The TVA. Every time someone in energy makes the argument that a utility should be made public as a muni or a coop I immediately think of the TVA. A public entity with a board appointed by Congress, with the highest paying position in the federal government, TVA is one of the most anti-solar utilities in the Country. This is supported by the antics of SMUD, LADWP and many others across the Country as well. The clean energy industry needs to examine the regulatory appointment process in every State and if Biden wins, look at the boards within the federal government as well. I want to be on the board of the TVA, not to be the inside solar guy but to make TVA the best run utility in the Country and be pro-solar and clean. We need our industry pros to be PSC commissioners, PSC staffers and secretaries at the state level also, the talent is here but we have to fight for it.

Worth Repeating. On Friday’s newsletter we highlighted the comments from Joe Biden in his DNC speech. It’s worth repeating on this Monday morning that climate change and the promise of clean energy jobs was prioritized to the top of the issues calendar. What solar policies do you think a Biden admin should prioritize?

Hope For The Best. This is the best way to describe the situation in California, and that’s before we talk about the wildfires. California is the first state on the mainland to push for a major energy transition and is stuck somewhere in no-man’s land. Parts of the market look deregulated with CAISO pricing and taking power away from the IOU with CCAs but then the CPUC doesn’t give purchasing power to those entities in order to price what they value. Politically, electeds in CA talk like everything should be solar and batteries with a robust demand response based pricing mechanism that shapes demand behavior based on generation but that’s nowhere near what is actually getting done. On the other hand this is not complicated to execute but regulatory capture is real. Take a look at PG&E a formerly (2x) bankrupt utility with junk credit rating convicted of multiple felonies, what did they lose when they last filed for BK from a regulatory perspective?

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

• PV-Magazine: Lawsuit challenges TVA’s anti-solar “never-ending contracts” with its utility customers
• Axios: Biden emphasizes climate change during his biggest moment
• New York Times: Poor Planning Left California Short of Electricity in a Heat Wave
• Reuters: Climate fund for poor nations vows to drive green COVID recovery
• Los Angeles Times: Rooftop solar battery prevent outages utilities stand in the way
• Utility Dive: Louisiana governor puts state on path to net-zero emissions by 2050
• Bloomberg: Botswana, Namibia Set to Sign 5-Gigawatt Solar Energy Plan

Opinion

• Missoulian: Let’s expand rooftop solar, not prevent it

Best, Yann

Climate As Top 4 Issue. Joe Biden gave his nomination acceptance speech late last night at the DNC. Standing alone in an empty arena behind a podium the former Vice President and Senator outlined the 4 great issues facing our country. A pandemic, economic downturn, racial injustice and acceleration of the climate crisis. In this SolarWakeup forum, climate is a top issue, it is our call to action so to hear it elevated to the last speech on the last day of a party convention gives me hope that the issue now has the platform we’ve been calling for. The work doesn’t end here, more work has to be done so whether your work is through Clean Energy for Biden, local campaigns or advocacy or talking about this issue to republican members, your voice is as important as ever. As Biden laid out, the climate crisis is the problem with an opportunity to create millions of great paying jobs and cause the investment of trillions of dollars.

California’s Energy PR Debate. Who is to blame for the multiple stage 3 emergencies causing rolling blackouts in California? The debate rages online. Couple of data points. The first emergency started at 7pm, yet solar is somehow to blame for this emergency. Secondly, there was more natural gas feeding the grid this Friday evening than the same Friday in the last two years. The argument is that renewable energy advocates are so powerful in California that regulators had to also cancel fossil fuel development and generation. CPUC, CAISO and CEC signed a letter stating that renewables were not to blame.

The Jobs In CleanTech. The governor of New Mexico is on Axios to talk about jobs in clean energy and I urge job training entities in solar to get themselves ready and professionalize their outreach to legislators. Solar, wind and the energy transition will cause changes that impact real people’s lives. Coal plant operators will lose jobs and so will miners and train operators for example. We must be a welcoming industry with training and great paying jobs, which I know we are, but not everyone does.

The Money In Solar. SolSystems buys $200million in North Carolina projects, Blackstone injects $300million in residential solar loans and DOE advances perovskite R&D. Not bad for a Thursday.

Batteries In Market. Yesterday you read about the LS Power battery in San Diego, the largest in the world. Based on reporting the plant only had an RA contract but operated on a merchant basis through the energy crisis. In Texas there were also several battery plants operating without existing off take agreements. It is entirely possible that the annual revenue projection in the model was achieved in a weekend.

Buyer’s Group Update. For the second week in a row the buyer’s group has doubled in size. This is a program for installers by leveraging the aggregate scale in volume which levels the playing field while returning margin to installers across the Country. Through transparent pricing that we are actively negotiating with supply chain, you can not only see the trend line but actually lower your COGS. Join today at solarwakeup.com/pricing

• Reuters: Clean energy is not to blame for California blackouts, state agencies tell governor
• Axios: New Mexico Gov. Lujan Grisham on Biden’s green jobs and fracking plans
• PV-Magazine: Blackstone pumps $300 million into Loanpal’s residential solar finance platform
• Grist: Fire Drill
• Greentech Media: Capital Dynamics Makes Multi-Gigawatt Bet on California Energy Storage
• Utility Dive: Following outrage over Hurricane Isaias response, Connecticut bill would put utilities on the hook for outage costs
• Bloomberg: Solar, Wind, and Batteries Are All Grown Up
• SolarWakeup: There Is Data In Aerial Imagery with Tim Rochman from EagleView Technologies

Opinion

• Politico: Trump blames California for wildfires, tells state ‘you gotta clean your floors’

Best, Yann

More Rundown Tomorrow. First day of school made my day longer as we get back to regular scheduled programming. All the parents that are negotiating a back to school which involves tech support and multiple kids trying to sit still in front of a computer for 6 hours straight.

Buyer’s Group Update. For the second week in a row the buyer’s group has doubled in size. This is a program for installers by leveraging the aggregate scale in volume which levels the playing field while returning margin to installers across the Country. Through transparent pricing that we are actively negotiating with supply chain, you can not only see the trend line but actually lower your COGS. Join today at solarwakeup.com/pricing

• Los Angeles Times: Here’s how California can keep the lights on while meeting its clean energy goals
• Greentech Media: LS Power Energizes World’s Biggest Battery, Just in Time for California’s Heat Wave
• Axios: GM’s electric vehicle business could be worth big money
• SF Gate: Massive Bay Area wildfires now visible from space
• Bloomberg: Citi CEO Says Banks Must Walk If Clients Won’t Reduce Emissions
• Energy News Network: Ohio lawmakers conflicted over nuclear bailout law repeal
• Solar Builder: Solar stats of the week, including 50,000 California homes adding storage
• Utility Dive: Final payments delayed in FES bankruptcy case as Justice Department racketeering investigation continues

Opinion

• GreenBiz: How could a Biden presidency affect climate change investing?

Best, Yann

Trump Tweets Energy. “In California, Democrats have intentionally implemented rolling blackouts — forcing Americans in the dark. Democrats are unable to keep up with energy demand…”

Part 2. “…Meanwhile, I gave America energy independence in fact, so much energy we could never use it all. The Bernie/Biden/AOC Green New Deal plan would take California’s failed policies to every American!”

At 7pm. Friday night at 7pm it’s hard to understand how it’s solar’s fault that the grid had a shortfall in generation. The grid also generated 26GW of gas, much more than previous years on a similar Friday evening (h/t Julie Blunden for the research). The pushback from fossil folks is that regulators have been kicking out fossil generation in favor of renewables and not doing enough to shore up reliability, something that I got caught up in with on Twitter with a GA PSC commissioner pushing nukes. The reality is that unless our team gets to make the decisions on how to design the best grid, the solar industry can’t be blamed. Even in this situation, the solution is incredibly obvious with today’s technology. That’s why my frustrations have been vocal recently around taking away local resource adequacy purchasing from local CCAs and giving it to PG&E. Or ask the large scale solar operators how many times they’ve offered to add storage to existing solar plants are ridiculously low prices that would have allowed the shift to occur and cover the 7pm hour. Utilities could also contract with companies like OhmConnect to sign up millions of manual demand response participants. In short, unless we’re in charge, we can’t be blamed. That fault remains firmly with regulators for now.

Solar In Congress. In April 2019, Congressman Charlie Crist filed the Sunshine Forever Act, a bill to extend the ITC to 2029. I first met Charlie when he was the Governor of Florida and as a republican got the golden meter award from Vote Solar for an outstanding net metering policy he pushed for almost 15 years ago. That same policy is in effect today driving the second largest solar market in the Country. Tomorrow at 5pm, it would be my pleasure to have you join me as I talk about clean energy with Congressman Crist. For $20 (or more if you can) donation to Clean Energy for Biden you can be part of the discussion as well. Charlie has been a supporter of our industry for a long time and it would be great to make the event a big success.

Buyer’s Group Update. For the second week in a row the buyer’s group has doubled in size. This is a program for installers by leveraging the aggregate scale in volume which levels the playing field while returning margin to installers across the Country. Through transparent pricing that we are actively negotiating with supply chain, you can not only see the trend line but actually lower your COGS. Join today at solarwakeup.com/pricing

• Utility Dive: Propelling the transition – The battle for control of virtual power plants is just beginning
• Greentech Media: How the Energy Storage Industry Responded to the Arizona Battery Fire
• Axios: How Biden could thwart Trump’s Arctic push
• Los Angeles Times: More California blackouts feared as heat wave intensifies
• Reuters: Germany’s RWE rakes in $2.4 billion to fund renewable energy expansion
• SolarWakeup: There Is Data In Aerial Imagery with Tim Rochman from EagleView Technologies
• GreenBiz: How to scale innovative financing for green infrastructure

Opinion

• Rocky Mountain Institute: Blackouts and California’s Clean Energy Transition

Best, Yann