Tag Archives: Daily Rundown

This is your SolarWakeup for July 24th, 2020

SolarWakeup Q3 Survey. A quick 5 question survey to check in on your solar business. How is Q3 and Q4 shaping up for your company? Survey closes on Monday.

Solar Market Conference Call. On Tuesday, I’ll be joined with other solar professionals to talk about the current state of solar. You can register (free) for the zoom call here.

The California Solar Jobs. California has a great opportunity which will not cost anything to build back jobs in solar with a simple legislative fix that the Governor can lead on. By implementing instant permitting across all municipalities, the Governor takes charge and helps create even more jobs in the State.

Earnings Calls Coming. With Tesla’s earnings behind us, we’ve got the other companies coming up. Those earnings calls should get us back to proper forecasting for the rest of the year and an understanding of the impact COVID had in Q2. One thing I’m watching is where factories are being set up. Seems that solar companies are closing US factories this year under the cover of COVID, more to come.

Corporate Procurement. It’s been a week for corporate action in solar, can’t wait for someone to figure out how to bring in smaller private companies into the market. 

Opinion

Best, Yann

This is your SolarWakeup for July 23rd, 2020

Bailing Out Coal And Nuclear. Taking a step back from the crime committed in Ohio to analyze what it means for the energy industry. HB6 had three primary components, bail out nuclear power plants, bail out coal plants and kill the renewable portfolio standard. All of this to primarily benefit one regulated, incumbent monopoly. Ohio is a conservative State where national image plays a role so you would think that supporting nuclear and especially coal would be a positive for legislators. In this case, the monopoly had to resort to bribing the Speaker of the House to pass a bill to allow them to get what they want. This either means that clean energy/climate advocates had enough power to stop the bill if not for bribes or legislators realize that the $60million means nothing to a utility that gets to pass their costs on to ratepayers. If you believe that the second is true, that the House speaker viewed utility regulations as a quasi-slush fund, then what makes you think this is unique to Ohio?

What’s Next? Theoretically the law forbids a convicted criminal from profiting from the crime. A bank robber does not get to keep the cash. In First Energy’s case however, HB6 remains law regardless of the fact that it happened thanks to a $60million greasing of the wheels. Legislators are mulling a repeal but in what shouldn’t come as a surprise, Governor DeWine does not support the repeal of a billion dollar subsidy for the monopoly. 

Money, Calls and Advocacy. It shouldn’t be surprise to you that solar doesn’t have $60 million in dark money for political action but instead we have the voice of a market that is booming and growing jobs in every Congressional district. It should not be a shock to you that the Senate leadership does not want to include the solar ITC in the stimulus package. So right now is the moment you pick up your phone and call your elected officials. Jobs, jobs, jobs is the message. Here’s how to call, here’s SEIA’s call to action. 

Clean Energy For Biden. 100% by 2035 is a policy that I strongly stand behind. Federal leadership on transmission, training and regional energy markets as well. Now that PURPA is being redesigned against solar, we will need action there as well. In August there are two great events to talk about how to make that happen. First on August 5th is with Senator Heinrich and on the 20th with Congressman Charlie Crist. Both have stood with solar for a decade and in a unique position to talk with us. If you want to get involved and help make these events a success, hit reply, including if you are interested in co-hosting the event. In working with the Biden campaign, SolarWakeup has a fundraising link that tracks back to the solar industry, your financial support is key.  

Opinion

Best, Yann

This is your SolarWakeup for July 22nd, 2020

Monopolies, Lobbying, Bribery and Indictments. The only major RPS to be eliminated happened in Ohio at the same time that the legislature bailed out coal in a nuclear bailout bill to the tune of $1.3billion. Ratepayers footed that bill and were sold a bill of goods by legislators and yesterday the FBI told us the other side of that legislative story. In an elaborate pay to play scheme with the Speaker of the House at the center, utilities are accused of bribing legislators for their support. The indictment is long and detailed and if you want to read the analysis, I recommend you read the twitter timeline from David Pomerantz. Meanwhile, the bill (HB6) remains law. Talk about bank robbers getting to keep the loot.

For Perspective. Solar companies closed down and people lost their jobs when HB6 was signed by the Governor of Ohio. That’s before ratepayers bailed out monopolies that are guaranteed a profit for power plants that are not financially viable. When legislators told us that the market will decide and we can’t pick winners and losers what they were trying to say is that solar can’t play with the big boys in the political arena. The regulatory capture for incumbents is real and I’m glad that the FBI investigated this case in detail.

Offtaker Before Development. In other news, that I view as one of the bigger game changers in the industry, Microsoft entered into an agreement with Sol Systems. The agreement calls for Sol Systems to develop, finance and operate 500MW and Microsoft will serve as the off taker. Great for corporate solar but even bigger for changing how solar development is done. By securing the off taker first, all of the development cost getting to that point is cheaper, faster and more confident. This is how every project should be developed going forward and until then, Sol Systems will have a huge advantage in the process.

New York Goes Big. The State, through NYPA and NYSERDA, launched a 4GW renewables procurement with 1.5GW coming from land based generation and 2.5GW from offshore wind. Big users should do big deals.

McConnell Drops The Ball. Corporates announced their support for the ITC extension with cash grant yesterday at the same time that McConnell downplayed any major inclusion of job creating policies in the next stimulus. I imagine that most solar companies would prefer an ITC extension than more PPP funds.

Biden Talks Climate. For a contribution of $100 or more you can join in an online discussion with the VP and the Veep. Joe Biden is joined by Julia Louis-Dreyfus on Thursday at 4:45pm, RSVP is due later today.

Opinion

Best, Yann

This is your SolarWakeup for July 20th, 2020

John Lewis And Environmental Justice. I read the news of John Lewis’s passing with sadness. He’s been an example of leading by action while also working within the congressional process. As it pertains to work we participate in, Lewis often included references to environmental justice, clean air and water in his speeches. Our industry is more than just generating electricity fueled by the son, we have a greater responsibility to cast benefits far and wide.

SolarAPP Moves Forward. Rocky Mountain Institute is deeply involved in the SolarAPP launch and is updating their view of the endeavor. For those of you unfamiliar with SolarAPP, it is a project led by NREL and others to create fast track and instant permitting for solar. As installers and users of permitting systems, your involvement is starting to be more crucial. First you will want to educate yourself on the project. Second, installers will be asked to identify and lobby AHJs to get involved as pilot participants or adopters of the system. Instant permitting is one of the best tools we can use to move the industry forward, cutting the speed from contract to install in half and savings thousands of dollars in the process.

Virtual World Designs!  Here’s the latest from our friends at OpenSolar, the free sales software we discussed in the interview with Birchy, it’s co-founder.  We talked then about the digital toolkit and how it supports inside sales and customer management online – now, today they launched their next generation design tool, OpenSolar 3D – the short video clip here has a nice overview (excuse the pun).  Pretty cool technology flying around your customers roof live with them online, placing panels with pitch, azimuth and shading all automated in what they describe as an “immersive customer facing experience”.  I know Birchy’s answer to yesterday’s question of “how do we scale 100% by 2035”: design and close your leads efficiently in a virtual, online customer experience with no site visit (COVID or not), then click a button to auto-populate SolarAPP to receive your digital permit, then and only then do you invest your money in driving a truck – and that’s to complete the install!  Seems OpenSolar’s mission is to make that a reality for all installers, no matter the size (interesting given the Sunrun-Vivint news) – and deliver that for free.  Good to see bold moves and innovation across the space. What else do you think changes the game on 100% by 2035?

Opinion

Best, Yann