• Greentech Media: Local Solar Installers Embrace Big New Opportunity – Home Battery Add-Ons
• PV-Magazine: 2,000 gigawatts of solar power needed for 100% renewables
• GreenBiz: New year, new energy – Cleantech innovations vie for the spotlight at CES
• PV-Tech: First Solar to pay US$350 million to settle 2012 class action case
• Rocky Mountain Institute: Think Distributed Solar-Plus-Storage isn’t Cost Effective? Think Again.
• Utility Dive: Making the case for billion-dollar investments in grid modernization by answering three key questions
• Bloomberg: Germany’s RWE Fires Up a Solar Farm in Texas Oil Country

Opinion

• Axios: BP aims to create energy tech unicorns

Best, Yann

Welcome To 2020. I am flying back to San Francisco today after a week back in Florida. More content and coverage coming as soon as the routine kicks back off. Reminder that you can always email me by clicking reply any morning with news and information about your solar work. 

• New York Times: N.A.A.C.P. Tells Local Chapters – Don’t Let Energy Industry Manipulate You
• Axios: Australian PM defends his response to fires
• Vox: Google and Amazon are now in the oil business
• Greentech Media: Iberdrola Completes Europe’s Largest Solar Plant (and Yes, It’s Subsidy-Free)
• Utility Dive: Judge tells Michigan regulators to send DTE back to drawing board on its long-term resource plan
• PV-Magazine: Delmarva Power’s demand charges beaten by Delaware man
• Grist: Amazon threatened to fire employees for speaking out on climate, workers say
• GreenBiz: City sustainability leadership deepens, banks build new environmental roles

Opinion

• The State: Will solar ruling cause SC power bills to rise? It sure looks that way, utility says

Best, Yann

The Mandates. I don’t like the word mandate but that is what the new home solar legislation in California is. The reality of the policy is that solar installed during new home construction is exponentially more cost effective than a one-off retrofit at a later date. Look for this policy to go farther in 2020 and beyond. The market will drive this as well once home builders realize that this generates instant value for the home buyer.

Where Is EVs Trade Org? EVs are coming fast and consumers want them but the market isn’t ready for changes. The OEMs don’t appear to be coordinating a policy path in DC and in the States, the closest I’ve seen comes from the charging companies. The opposition to EVs will come from labor, mechanics, and oil majors amongst others. There are trillions of dollars in play that will shift industries. This comes before the adaptation of self-driving cars which will decimate insurance premiums in due time.

Community Solar In 2020. Community solar programs are a huge success and are oversubscribed anywhere they are enacted. It also bridge the best of all of solar where distributed installers match homeowners with large scale developers and tech companies. This should be a big year for the market. 

• Vox: California now requires solar panels on all new homes. That’s not necessarily a good thing.
• Axios: Electric vehicles face an uncertain policy landscape in 2020
• PV-Tech: New Jersey approves 45 community solar projects
• Greentech Media: 5 Tangible Advances for Long-Duration Energy Storage in 2019
• Grist: How do fossil fuel companies have so much power?
• Utility Dive: JEA rejects multibillion-dollar buyout offers from Duke, NextEra and 7 others
• Bloomberg: Chinese Solar Company to Spend $947 Million Building Two Plants
• PV-Magazine: Why don’t early-stage VCs invest in solar any more?

Opinion

• GreenBiz: 7 companies making their mark with commercial microgrids

Best, Yann

Happy New Year! Welcome to the 2020 decade. Hard to imagine what solar looks like in 10 years. But let’s try. What is your biggest prediction for the end of the year and the end of the decade? Hit reply to this email and send me your thoughts, the best ones make it on.

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• GreenBiz: 2019 was the year that…

Best, Yann