New Home Solar Lives. On Wednesday, the CEC pushed a decision that could have hurt the solar on new home requirement requested by the utilities. This will come back and hopefully with local community solar for multi family units only.

Ratings and Advance Rates. More securitization are being done in solar. Once a novel concept, almost every quarterly filing highlights another securitization, some of which are now rated A and offer mortgage level rates.

Compete and Improve. It’s true, renewables have to compete on price without the backstop of a guaranteed return and pay for the infrastructure improvement. Many of these improvements are priced to hurt the renewable generation which caused the MA regulators to open an investigation into the local utility.

The Transition. Earlier this week Tesla received a prestigious German auto award and then announced a new factory in Berlin. While Tesla is littered in online polarization, there is no doubt that companies like VW and Mercedes have advanced their timelines by a decade because of their success. Elon was on stage with the VW CEO this week, an interesting dynamic.

Census and Local Shows. Make sure your company fills out the Solar Jobs Census and if you are in the Maryland/DC area, attend the MDV SEIA conference Solar Focus. 

• Los Angeles Times: Editorial – California needs solar panels on new homes.
• PV-Magazine: Institutional investors warm to residential solar securitizations
• Greentech Media: Vestas – Renewables Sector Should Be ‘Outraged’ at Footing the Bill for Grid Upgrades
• Axios: The bumpy transition toward electric vehicles
• Denver Post: Colorado commissioners approve land request for solar farm
• Renew Economy: South Australia household batteries to the rescue as Queensland coal unit fails
• GreenBiz: The great EV infrastructure challenge
• Utility Dive: CPUC demands PG&E defend power shut-off actions, launches investigation into all IOUs

Opinion

• EDF: California fires, electricity outages need not be “the new normal”

Best, Yann

• Los Angeles Times: California will still require rooftop solar panels on new homes — at least for now
• Greentech Media: US Trade Court Sides With Longi, Jinko, REC in Solar Patent case
• PV-Tech: IRENA – World must take solar to 8.5TW by 2050 to fight climate change
• Axios: The trouble with big power companies’ net-zero pledges
• Vox: These uses of CO2 could cut emissions — and make trillions of dollars
• Washington Post: The Many Reasons Venice is flooding right now.

Opinion

• GreenBiz: Inside the transition from diesel to electric

Best, Yann

Growth, Training Required. Sunrun reported their quarterly earnings yesterday and CEO Lynn Jurich led with the blackouts in California. Sales are booming for the company, as with the market, but Lynn highlighted the lagging installation numbers. With 600 jobs listed by the company, it reminds us of the work we need to do to train the workforce all installers need to get solar installed. If only there was a way to merge the impact from coal bankruptcies with the location of solar installation jobs. From a manufacturer’s standpoint, I think a lot about how we can be helpful in the training of the workforce. We have the facilities and knowledge but lack the time and resource to bring folks in and let them know that training is available.

More Jobs, Jobs, Jobs. It’s that time of year again – The Solar Foundation needs your help to complete the Solar Jobs Census. The nonprofit organization is preparing its tenth annual report that is the authoritative source of solar employment numbers, nationwide and state by state. Please help them succeed by completing the Solar Jobs Census survey now.

The DG Microgrid, Financed. Vivint Solar is out with a new PPA product that pairs solar with storage. This goes into the current state of mind of consumers that just had a blackout and are thinking about the value storage would have provided to them. As time passes, that values goes back down to zero and the consumer is no longer interested in paying for the value it creates. 

• Greentech Media: Sunrun Sales Outpace Installations in Q3 as Labor Crunch Hits Home
• Solar Power World: Vivint launches residential solar + storage PPA option in California
• PV-Magazine: DTE established renewables arm
• Bloomberg: U.S. Solar Companies Are Stockpiling a Massive Amount of Panels
• PV-Tech: IHS Markit – Despite China decline global solar growth in 2019 to hit 129GW
• GreenBiz: Vehicle-to-grid technology is revving up
• Utility Dive: Lessons learned from Europe – What US cities must do to achieve a clean electric future
• Axios: The mammoth gap between energy trends and climate goals

Opinion

• Vox: How should billionaires spend their money to fight climate change? I asked 9 experts.

Best, Yann

Out Of One, Come Two. Yesterday Sunpower announced that the company will be splitting into two separate entities. By bringing in $298mm in new capital into the module manufacturing business, Maxeon Solar is born. Maxeon will take over the manufacturing side of the Sunpower business, based in Singapore, and trade on the NASDAQ. The $298mm investment comes at a valuation of ~$1bb and is made by China’s TZS Zhonghuan Semiconductor. The transaction was unanimously approved by the board and is expected to spin off in Q2 2020. Maxeon will retain exclusive supply to Sunpower in the US and Canada. For more on this transaction, Sunpower was kind enough to explain it all in this presentation.

The Downstream Play. Sunrun, Vivint Solar and Sunnova have a new publicly listed competitor. Sunpower is now fully committed to the DG segment. Slide 31 of the above presentation shows that we are thinking the same thing. Sunpower is also telling shareholders that they think they should be valued closer to $3bb from the $1bb they are currently trading at which is the entire purpose of this split. Sunpower has a tremendously loyal dealer network that co-brands their companies as ‘by Sunpower’ which is a powerful marketing tool. There is still some work to be done but in a world where module and inverter supply is constrained, Sunpower dealers now have priority supply agreements with Maxeon and Enphase.

Changing New Home Solar. Here is the scoop about the work around that the utilities and some home builders are trying when it comes to the new home solar mandate. To start, an important note, home builders have no additional cost to add solar to the new homes. Solar financing companies will cover those costs for the builder and still pass along savings to the new home owners. Through a filing by SMUD, they are attempting to let home builders achieve the requirement for solar by allocating the homes to solar farms labeled as ‘community solar’ well away from the community. This will in no way help achieve more distributed generation and allow the future of micrograms to be built out. As the California Energy Commission votes on this proposal on Wednesday, it appears that the California home builders association is split on this. One of the largest homebuilders, Lennar, is against this broad proposal to eliminate the rooftop solar mandate and is expected to speak out against it at the hearing. 

• Greentech Media: SunPower to Spin Off Manufacturing Business in Major Strategic Shift
• Los Angeles times: California might not require solar panels on new homes, after all
• Business Insider: Climate events have cost the US economy more than $500 billion over the last 5 years, Fed official says
• PV-Magazine: Two programs launched to get veterans working in solar
• Post and Courier: SC utilities and solar builders at odds over price for power contracts
• PV-Tech: Acciona boosts profit margins as installed solar portfolio triples
• Renew Economy: Negative pricing events hit record levels as solar takes big bite out of coal
• Utility Dive: California proposes extending 4.8 GW gas capacity as bridge to 3.3 GW of new clean energy by 2023

Opinion

• GreenBiz: Exploring the business case for carbon removal

Best, Yann