Tag Archives: Daily Rundown

This is your SolarWakeup for February 21st, 2020

Stocks Are Hot. Maybe it’s the hot solar market, maybe it’s the fundamentals but either way solar stocks are on fire right now. There is an overlap of the growth story mixed with the maturity of the stock success. Take Solaredge and Enphase as an example. Both executed against their earnings estimates and are building their cash reserves.  Solaredge and Enphase sold more than $2billion worth of solar ‘stuff’ last year at margins over 30%. There will be lows that come with these highs but for now, Wall Street is enamored.

The Great Right Woo. One of solar’s talking points that came out after the ITC loss was that the industry created a good foundation of support on the right. The nuance in my opinion is that relationships in DC are fungible, goes with the saying “what have you done for me lately?.” Passing legislation in DC means you have support based on leverage, situational horse trading and grassroots support. So we will have to look at cards coming into 2020, where do we stand on those issues and what are we doing differently than last year? We don’t want to be doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result, that would be ….

A Better Way. The ISO-NE capacity auction cleared the largest coal plant for another year, getting another $8million in capacity contracts through to 2024 year. The problem I have with this is that we already know we can do better than this. Sunrun in partnership with National Grid already won a capacity auction based on distributed energy storage resources. Over the next 3 years, solar installers will build a lot of of what we’ve already done.

Debate The Transition. Speaking of transition, there was an interesting moment during the last DNC debate where Mike Bloomberg labeled natural gas as a transition fuel. I know that this label is a spark of argument and I understand the concern. Clearly there has been a move from coal to natural gas as the utilities have rate based an entire fleet exchange. Now it is the job of regulators and advocates to limit the life span of those plants. The 100% goals and RPS plans are clearly an example of that success.

Opinion

Best, Yann

This is your SolarWakeup for February 20th, 2020

Opinion

Best, Yann

This is your SolarWakeup for February 19th, 2020

Here Is Your Job Report. For the first time in 3 years, solar jobs great by over 5,000 jobs. The jobs continue to be driven by DG market expansion in markets throughout the southeast and all of the new markets that have been popping up. Diversity continues to be an issue in solar and I hope to be able to host some conversations on how we can do a better job being a growing market for everyone. For more info, click today’s top story.

PG&E Earnings. Not so good, losses of over $3billion for the last quarter. Imagine a market where the company doesn’t get a guaranteed return on its monopoly.

Enphase Earnings. After hours yesterday, Enphase delivered results that the market found enticing (the stock was up over 11% in after hours markets). This was driven based on strong margins and market share gains. More write ups to come from analysts.

Don’t Fall For It. SMUD, the Sacramento Utility, is using its PR department to spin some falsehoods about the new home solar requirement in California. They are pushing for a way for community solar to be used instead of rooftop solar which is clearly out of bounds from the legislative effort. Keep your eyes on this.

South Dakota. Solar in South Dakota is going to get a link and a mention on this platform. I love new markets joining our market.

NIPSCO RFP. Indiana can have cheap solar and storage too, check out these results from the recent RFP that shows how close the energy markets are to getting rid of natural gas altogether. Any bid that includes ‘plus fuel and O&M costs’ is going to have a tough time competing against guaranteed pricing. 

Opinion

Best, Yann

This is your SolarWakeup for February 18th, 2020

Hello Boston. I am en route to Solar Power Northeast to see what is new and exciting in the staples of the east coast markets. Some of my favorite solar friends are in this market and who doesn’t love complicated regulatory labyrinths? This week is going to bring us the Solar Jobs Census numbers so we will see where the market and States stack up. We also see earnings from Enphase and Solaredge today and tomorrow which will give us an indication of the residential solar market and how global supply chain is fairing right now.

Here We Go! Jeff Bezos is doing what I’ve been hoping for, he is creating a $10Billion (with a B) fund to fight climate change. Funding will go to scientists, activists and NGOs and grants will go out this summer. This has the opportunity to create a generational shift in this fight to transform the market we operate in and the fight against climate change. I hope this starts off with a bang and the people behind the scenes get some of the high octane gas that is $10Billion.

The Top 3. Here’s where I would start, knowing that $10B is a longer vision number meant to be global. First, State level advocacy groups in solar, efficiency and consumer protection. Don’t fund the State level fights, but fight groups that are already fighting in the dirt at State capitols. Second, let’s get funding into groups hoping to reshape the energy markets. This is research based advocacy that will allow for the markets to drive change in how we consume, generate and monetize energy. Third, let’s build the solar grassroots organization that supports all of the other advocacy we are working on. 10 million members and more! And one more for good luck, let’s build the SolarAPP that will make instant solar permitting feasible across the Country. Solar installers shouldn’t have to spend thousands of dollars and wait months to get a permit.

But Don’t Forget. Fighting climate change is fundamentally a policy fight. And politics is a different type of battle field and energy is filled with monopolies and oil majors that have trillions to lose. That’s why I would advise Jeff (we’re on a first name basis) to allocate $1B to the Energy Battle Super PAC. It’s not about using the funding as much as knowing that someone has that kind of support backing it, especially when matched with the 10million members. 

Now someone please introduce me to Jeff!

Opinion

Best, Yann