Welcome Back. Thank you for letting me take a week off last week, because life has been busy we skipped right over the 7 year anniversary of SolarWakeup and the 2,500th edition of the daily newsletter. We’re read more than a million times a year and growing now and for that I am thankful.

The Tweet To Ponder. I’ve talked about the need to spend on policy in the past and we, as a solar industry, still don’t. It is the agenda item most ignored in board rooms because we feel like we’ve never been able to show the payback of the policy spend. So let’s look at how it works when the big boys do it. Here are a list of companies and their political contributions in anticipation of the tax bill of last year, just one example. Look at Pharma, oil, gas, utilities or defense as other examples of how the US political system goes round. Your spend doesn’t need to be just contributions, you can do that through SEIA PAC or the CALSSA PAC or supporting some of the trade groups. Add a zero to your policy budget for next year, please.

Big Problem, Big Names, Big Hopes. John Kerry is launching World War Zero. A group that includes The Who’s who of the global establishment to highlight the national security risk and wartime mobilization caused by global warming. The group includes Presidents Clinton and Carter as well as GOP governors Kasich and Schwarzenegger. The celebrities joining the group include Leonardo DiCaprio and Sting. Interestingly, World War Zero will not propose policies instead opting to make itself known in battleground states and speaking at military bases that are impacted by climate change.

Different Type Of Activism. Two variations of activism that could have an impact on the energy markets. If you watched the Yale-Harvard football game last you saw that student activists stopped the game from restarting for the second half. They were protesting for the divestment of the Yale and Harvard endowments. This is in fact a way to impact the decision making process of large investors and similar to hedge fund TCI ($26B AUM) arguing that directors should be more transparent in their company’s polluting activities.

The Integrated Storage Play. Enphase has opened their website for pre-orders of their Ensemble energy storage platform. The pre-order is a great new tool to gauge interest and create a pipeline ahead of release. It’s also a great tool for supply chain folks to make sure they are getting enough of what they need and keep customers happy. The micro inverter to energy storage platform is the launching off point for the IQ8 system that will open new potential revenue streams like what we saw from Sunrun/National Grid in ISO-NE earlier this year. 

• Axios: Big names begin bipartisan push to build support for carbon cuts
• GreenBiz: Barack Obama on climate, equity and overconsumption
• Financial Times: Hedge fund TCI vows to punish directors over climate change
• PV-Magazine: All I want for Christmas is a solar power plus Enphase Ensemble battery backup
• PV-Tech: Enel confirms multi-billion-euro renewables investment upgrade in strategy revamp
• Vox: Climate activists brought Harvard-Yale football game to a stop to protest fossil fuel investments
• Greentech Media: 18 Wind and Solar Markets to Watch in 2020
• Utility Dive: Montana rejects NorthWestern’s bid to end net metering, add separate rate class for solar

Opinion

• EDF: Illinois Clean Energy Jobs Act will improve the state’s economic climate

Best, Yann

More column tomorrow. I’ll be off next week, hope you enjoy your Thanksgiving holiday week. SolarWakeup will publish again on Friday and then return to your inbox on December 2nd. 

• PV-Magazine: Solar bridges the political divide
• Axios: How Democrats want to change the energy tax code
• USA Today: Largest coal plant in the West shuts down, dealing financial losses to Native American tribes
• Utility Dive: Presidential contenders join fellow senators in urging New England to speed clean energy transition
• PV-Tech: Dutch solar hails bonus round of green energy subsidies
• Greentech Media: Does Australia Have Too Much Rooftop Solar?
• GreenBiz: Dominion Energy’s electric school bus program offers valuable vehicle-to-grid lesson
• Bloomberg: AES, Enel Among the Six Renewable Energy Developers Suing Mexico

Opinion

• Grist: How climate change became polarized (and why that could change)

Best, Yann

We’re In The Game. With the release of a Discussion Draft, Chairman Neal of the House Ways and Means Committee put the solar ITC on the track to get a 5 year extension. This is not a bill, nothing has been voted on and nothing has been decided except this was the political step to get the ITC moving forward. The pathway remains the same as before, a massive spending bill at the end of the year that gets the House and Senate to put political barriers aside to keep the government operating. What solar needs to do now is show the politicians that solar has jobs, opportunity and political power so that when the final deal gets negotiated, solar isn’t left out.

Don’t Stop The Pressure. Click Here and fill out the call to action. Send your letter to your member of Congress and if you have a twitter account make sure to blast it as well. The entire process takes 60 seconds. Now that we are in the game, we have to make sure we cross the finish line. Democracy is a full contact sport and we have to push our message. Jake Marshall from CED Greentech San Diego showed me a picture of a computer they put out for customers to use to sign the call the action, I urge you all to steal the idea and do the same. Anywhere you come in contact with solar supporters, put out the webpage.

Make A Call. Take another 5 minutes and call your member of the House, particularly those of you in AZ, CO, CA, NV and NY. Not all of your employees and colleagues read this newsletter, please forward this email to them and encourage them to fill it out as well. Let’s get more letters sent out today and everyday, click here now! Post one of these two paragraphs on LinkedIn and tag me and SolarWakeup to get the post re-shared. Let’s see how many folks we can get involved in the political process.

Why This Matters. US Energy related carbon emissions went up 2.7% last year, a trend in the wrong direction tied to the economic growth that the US continues to experience. At this time in history, the ITC would allow the energy sector to decarbonize and adding storage to the credit would help replace even more fossil based generation. 

• Solar Power World: House releases tax package that would extend solar ITC by 5 years
• Axios: The state of U.S. energy-related carbon emissions
• New York Times: PG&E Struggles to Find a Way Out of Bankruptcy
• PV-Magazine: No property tax for residential solar in Michigan
• Greentech Media: Equinor, National Grid and Drax Offer Glimpse of Net Zero Economy
• Los Angeles Times: Climate change activists urge Los Angeles not to build a gas plant in Utah
• CNN: Secretive energy startup backed by Bill Gates achieves solar breakthrough

Opinion

• GreenBiz: New solutions are needed to pair EVs and renewables

Best, Yann

ITC Call To Action. Click Here and fill out the call to action. Send your letter to your member of Congress and if you have a twitter account make sure to blast it as well. The entire process takes 60 seconds. Why? Congress is going to release tax extenders very soon and we have to be in the bill. We’re alive until we’re not and I guarantee you that this is the most important 60 seconds of your career this year. Take another 5 minutes and call your member of the House, particularly those of you in AZ, CO, CA, NV and NY. Not all of your employees and colleagues read this newsletter, please forward this email to them and encourage them to fill it out as well. Let’s get 10,000 letters sent out today, click here now!

The Courts Opine. I’ve been lightly following the various court cases making their way through the system. The one with the most sober headline is against Exxon about what they knew about climate change in the 70s. I don’t expect this to be a case similar to the tobacco companies but money in a settlement seems like the most obvious win for the plaintiffs. Similar to the VW settlements, some of these dollars could drive new markets or R&D spending to counter the effects.

More Blackout Notices. Moments ago I received another PSPS blackout notice from my new friends at PG&E. We’re seeing each other so often that people may start rumors about our friendship. Regardless of a blackout actually happening every notice creates a new sense of panic in consumers’ minds. This means that every notice of a power outage reignites those solar leads we wrote about last month and with storage adoption reaching 15% of solar installs, you’re starting to see real traction in this space.

Personnel Moves. In a move that shows maturity in a market, storage/DER/microgrid pioneer AMS has moved their former VP of Product to CEO. Susan Kennedy is moving to board chair and the CEO role goes to Seyed Madaeni. Madaeni build their algorithmic trading platform that launched in Australia and looks to go live in California as well. 

• PV-Magazine: Draft on extending and expanding ITC is expected to drop this week
• Axios: Why the hottest global warming battle is in the courtroom
• Greentech Media: AMS Names New CEO as Software Product Gains Traction
• Utility Dive: Don’t minimize the resilience role of microgrids. They’re key to mitigating wildfire and PSPS risk
• Bloomberg: New York City’s Largest Solar Project Coming to JFK Airport
• Solar Builder Magazine: Solar advocates call for LIPA to reverse decision that will end community solar on Long Island

Opinion

• ILSR: How Market Power Gives Electric Utilities Political Power

Best, Yann