Tag Archives: Daily Rundown

This is your SolarWakeup for January 29th, 2020

In Person Wakeup. Come see me next week at Intersolar in  San Diego and in Boston in a few weeks for Solar Power Northeast. More commentary tomorrow right here on SolarWakeup. In the meantime, we will be relaunching The Wakeup Podcast in a few months with exciting new guests, send your ideas for interviews and storytellers across!

Opinion

Best, Yann

This is your SolarWakeup for January 28th, 2020

The EV Solar Overlap. With another auto OEM announcing a major investment in EV and autonomous vehicle manufacturing, you may ask yourself what the overlap is between the solar and auto sectors. There are two important intersections between us that will make solar a central player in the growth. While EV owners tend to never go back to traditional vehicles, the adoption of EVs by new consumers is slowing, even flattening. Quite simply, consumers are scared of something they don’t know how it works and don’t know where to start. Dealerships are not the best place to go because most sales teams don’t actually have an EV. BUT, homeowners that go solar are much more comfortable to try an EV and with the solar contractor most likely showing up in one, they also know who to ask questions to and get a charging plug installed at their home. Not only does the solar contractor create the path to EV ownership, it also breeds the consumer comfort you need for new technology adoption. Large scale solar also makes the EV future much cleaner. Buses, cars, and even garbage trucks will be electric and that drives electric load growth which has to be met with new renewables matching the load profile.

GreenRock Future. BlackRock is getting more attention for its renewables investments off their CEOs letter about sustainable focus. This isn’t new but it is growing in both scale as well as breadth of investable markets beyond the traditional solar and wind markets.

A Sober Look At Davos. Joel Makower of GreenBiz has a unique and fresh view of how sustainability was discussed at Davos.

Why States Matter. New Jersey has been moving their market forward, not without change, but in a way that takes stakeholder experience into account and making the market continue its leadership position. This is why the solar industry continues to rely on the leadership at the state gubernatorial and legislative level.

Speed Translation. The outgoing CEO of BP says that oil majors should not act too fast on climate change because their is technology risk. Translation: BP needs to get more cash out of the ground in quarterly earnings before realizing that it hasn’t been able to execute in the renewables market. 

Opinion

Best, Yann

 

 

This is your SolarWakeup for January 27th, 2020

My Amazon Idea. Like other tech companies, employees at Amazon are pushing their leadership to do more to fight climate change. Here’s my idea. Amazon has a way of getting consumers, myself included, to search, browse and click to buy very quickly. I would like a second buy it now button, color it green. Every product has a carbon cost embedded in it including the transportation related carbon debt. Let me click the buy it now price that pays for that carbon debt, a voluntary carbon tax if you will. I don’t know if people will do it or what the right carbon price is, experts and testing will tell us if it would work but I think that I would pay the extra dollar or two to quickly do my part.

The Existing Portfolio. The right battery price was always going to make this a reality. With the 10s of GW of solar capacity already in place in America and more around the world, owners of those assets will be adding storage to every solar plant. There will be hardware improvements and more importantly the need for power markets, off takers to adapt to this. It will also need project owners to determine if they want to reopen their contracts for negotiating the addition of storage.

Listen To The State Chapter. Arizona’s SEIA chapter has ideas for how their utility can meet their goals that were announced and the same is true for other state solar trade associations. Utilities and regulators alike should be working with these groups and their members to advance the ball on this important topic.

24. We do important work every day and many of us do it to improve the lives of those around us. No matter your role, remember that we need to work just as hard to be present in the moment. Kobe was the best at what he did in his moment and now the expectation for a bright and present future is gone. 

Opinion

Best, Yann

 

 

This is your SolarWakeup for January 24th, 2020

Sunrun CEO Speaks. Lynn Jurich gets the corner office treatment from the New York Times, conducting an interview to talk about her as a person and leader of the largest residential solar installer in the Country.

SEIA CEO Speaks. In an interview with Bloomberg, Abby Hopper talks about the ITC step-down, politics of solar and the opportunities that exist in the market.

Market Speaks. Thinking about the commercial distributed market, a market that has been struggling to find a real footing, it may be possible that storage creates a real certainty on value for the investor or business owner. What’s next for this space, especially the unrated portion of it, is what could create the largest solar opportunity in history of the US market.

EV Fleets Will Speak. The future of EVs and all the tangential markets it includes will require robust policy advocacy. The Corporate Electric Vehicle Alliance will kick off the effort.

Opinion

Best, Yann