Tag Archives: Daily Rundown

This is your SolarWakeup for July 14th, 2020

Happy Birthday. Today is my oldest child’s 10th birthday. That seems insane to me but in the hopes he one day comes back and reads every newsletter, happy birthday E! Not to worry, we’ll be at 100% clean energy by the time you graduate college.

Talking To Congress. This week 650 companies in the solar industry made their voice heard in Congress. This is a bipartisan call for action on policies like refund ability of the ITC, inclusion of storage and more. Over the past 3 months the solar industry has shown its resilience, not only in bouncing back with jobs and market but also with public company performance. Public solar companies have done better than other companies. The industry is also there to pull the rest of the economy up with it as we expand.

A Big Announcement. Reporting from Bloomberg has it that Joe Biden will announce his plan to build back the economy later today which will include a call for 100% clean energy by 2035. That’s 14 years away and quite the initiative, one I support for financial, moral and environmental reasons. The saying goes, if we’re right about climate change we will have done something about it but if we’re wrong about climate change we will have created jobs and economic growth. There is no downside to actually implementing this and a clear distinction of the political race we’re in.

A Decade Of Action. I want you to think about what it means to get to 100% and the steps you have to undertake in order for us to achieve that. It won’t be easy but it is readily achievable. It sure that we will need more of everything but like all things that solar undertakes we have to also figure out how to do it better. That’s why tonight the latest SolarWakeup podcast talks about sustainability inside solar companies. I talk with TJ Kanczuzewski from Inovateus. They recently published their sustainability report and talk about zero waste construction for their EPC projects. We need more solar but unlike the oil and gas wells that are left behind creating environmental disasters, solar will do better.

Industrial Electrification. What would a truck look like that has a battery in the bed of it that goes to a construction site and charges electric caterpillar machinery? Seriously, I have no idea of the scale of the truck it takes to achieve that. Today, trucks carrying diesel go to the sites but if we electrify machinery that truck gets replaced by something else. Maybe utilities will have mobile stations that get connected to temporary power instead but for the electrical engineer readers, I’m interested to learn. 

Opinion

Best, Yann

This is your SolarWakeup for July 13th, 2020

EVs In Focus. Rivian has raised another $2.5billion. What is now becoming clear to me is that the existing OEMs are not able to get real on EVs. They have the teams, money and facilities but can’t get around to making EVs that actually do what they are supposed to, cannibalize their existing market. Tesla will be joined by Rivian and then another but until salespeople, dealers and designers see the benefits of change, they will resist it.

Effective Load Capacity. Twitter has the best headlines buried in it and I hope that reporters will take this one on. California utilities have studied the effective load carrying capacity (ELCC) of various forms of renewables, names solar, solar with 4 hours of storage, wind and wind with 4 hours. You’ll have to read the filing to get the full definition of ELCC but it is as it seems, how effective at providing electricity is each source when the grid needs it. Here’s the headline, tracking PV is 6.9% when judged as an as-available resource. Add 4 hours of storage to it and it jumps to 99.8%. This remains true even in 2030 when the ELCC for solar hybrid is still 93.2%. Let’s reevaluate the race to the bottom on energy cost and get projects built that monetize the value of the assets.

500 Million Solar Panels. Part of the Biden-Sanders plan brings back an idea from Clinton in 2016, 500 million solar panels. In my podcast from a few weeks ago with John Farrell, we talked about his plan for 30 million solar roofs and it’s similar to a memo I wrote a year ago pushing for no more naked roofs, i.e. solar on every rooftop. Biden’s plan is clear, we’re going to do more solar. Industry folks will push for a different metric but people understand solar panels more than they understand watts or kWhs. If you could write the plan for the Biden campaign, what are the bullet points?

Are Modules Fungible? Rinse and reuse as they say. The SolarWorld factory in Oregon was acquired by SunPower and now the factory in Germany is taken over by Meyer Burger. Meyer was historically a provider of factory solutions to OEMs looking to manufacture. Now they feel that their solution is fine branded under their own flag. So I ask you to think about this, what is the value of the label on the module? I’m not talking about quality or materials used, but the label itself. Residential solar modules range from modules in the 30s per watt to over $1. Brand names and names only solar pros know, silver on white and black on black. Is this fungible or drive a homeowner to make a decision one way or another.

Mobile But Stationary. Here is the corrected link for the podcast with Orison CEO, Eric Clifton. Orison is the storage company that makes storage for your home but plugs into your outlet. Podcast link for Apple and Spotify

Trivia Answer. Last week I asked who the largest pure play installer was now that Sunrun is acquiring Vivint Solar. Of course SunPower and Tesla follow Sunrun but they aren’t only installers. The answer is Trinity Solar out of New Jersey.

Opinion

Best, Yann

This is your SolarWakeup for July 10th, 2020

Talking Orison’s Battery. In this week’s podcast I talk with Orison’s CEO. Orison is the startup that recently raised $8.5million for their energy storage hardware product. If you read the comments about the original coverage you’ll see that there is some pushback about the product from inside solar and I ask him some of those questions. Please rate and subscribe to the podcast.

Two Energy Policy Options. The Biden campaign, in collaboration with the Sanders advisors, released a strong and ambitious plan to fight climate change. More renewables, R&D, job training amongst other initiatives. In November there are two options on the ballot and when it comes to energy only one of them has a real plan. There are some great events coming up that I’ll be sharing with you and in the meantime hope you start putting your money behind the policy that increases the market for your work.

Revisiting Equity In The Workplace. BlueWave Solar released their actions and plan to practice anti-racism in the workplace. The plan is simple and to the point and I appreciate their willingness to be open and share it with the industry.

Readers Helping Out. A personal thank you to Panasonic’s Jack O’Donohue for a kind message on LinkedIn about SolarWakeup. It gave SolarWakeup a new network to welcome to the readership. Thanks Jack!

Share Data, Not Germs. Thanks to the great team at UtilityAPI for sending one of these really cool masks. What are your branded masks looking like?

Nonprofits Want Solar Too. My friends at CollectiveSun can help you sell more solar to nonprofits. By working with CollectiveSun your nonprofit prospects get easy $0 down financing and a 12% or more tax-like credit for their systems. Now, more than ever, solar can help nonprofits save on their critical operating expenses. If you are a solar installer or developer, this is a great solution for you to sell more solar and ignite more deals with nonprofits. Click here to learn more about working with CollectiveSun.

Opinion

Best, Yann

This is your SolarWakeup for July 9th, 2020

A Feel Good Story. The CEO of a Los Angeles based installer has the story that we want to hear in solar. Kenneth Wells didn’t have it easy growing up and after 6 years in the criminal system found himself entering the solar workforce through a program at Grid Alternatives. That training led to more solar jobs before ending up at Sunrun as a construction manager. Today he’s his own boss running O&M Solar Services. There isn’t enough funding for solar groups like Grid Alternatives and training centers, and stories like Kenneth’s help tell the solar success story.

Solar Is Misunderstood. The headline pulled me in, I wanted to read more analysis on what folks thought about Sunrun’s acquisition of Vivint Solar. Reading the article, I was shocked by the confusion. In short, the author says that Sunrun bought Vivint Solar because more homeowners are buying solar instead of leasing it and Sunrun wanted to more share of the “shrinking slice of the pie.” Cash, loans and leases are democratized. Most installers have access to all three financial products today and this deal isn’t about leases.


PacifiCorp Responds To Solar. Two days in a row for the Northwest utility on SolarWakeup. The 58th largest utility in America filed their IRP and is readying an RFP for 1.8GW of solar and 595MW of energy storage to be installed in the next 3 years. Not too shabby.

Capital Dynamics Wants It All. When MISO releases their recent interconnection data, we will likely see record applications that may reach over 2GW in applications, maybe much more. Capital Dynamics, the asset manager with a record of execution, is now partnering with Tenaska on a portfolio of 24 projects coming online by 2023. The total capacity is estimated to be 4.8GW.

Nonprofits Want Solar Too. My friends at CollectiveSun can help you sell more solar to nonprofits. By working with CollectiveSun your nonprofit prospects get easy $0 down financing and a 12% or more tax-like credit for their systems. Now, more than ever, solar can help nonprofits save on their critical operating expenses. If you are a solar installer or developer, this is a great solution for you to sell more solar and ignite more deals with nonprofits. Click here to learn more about working with CollectiveSun.

Opinion

Best, Yann