Tag Archives: Daily Rundown

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

This is your SolarWakeup for August 24th, 2020

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. 

Opinion

Best, Yann