Tag Archives: Daily Rundown

This is your SolarWakeup for November 11th, 2019

Thank you to all the veterans reading right now. My family and I greatly appreciate your service to the Country.

Thank You! With your support I was elected to the board of CALSSA. I’ve had the pleasure of working with CALSSA over the past decade and in the past year even more so. Bernadette and the CALSSA team do amazing work creating the largest State market in the US and I’m excited to get involved with more responsibility. Policy is business development as we work together to advance the markets.

The Next Decade. We are going into the next decade with unprecedented public support, cost competitive systems, and more than 3.3GW of required additional capacity in the California power market alone. We know how to solve these issues as a team, through DG, community solar and large scale solar with a sprinkle of storage everywhere.

Undermining Intentions. The politics in our market continue to get a bit more complicated but we are well prepared for them. One example is how SMUD is trying to circumvent the new home solar mandate by trying to take the solar panels off the roof and solve it with what amounts to SREC purchases. There was no legislative intention to allow this to happen but rule making is always an important time for executing on new laws. I’ll be digging further into this since there appears to be more to the story.

Don’t Hold Your Breath. SEIA was granted a temporary restraining order (TRO) by a judge to hold the repeal of the bifacial module exemption for a few weeks but all indication is that it will not hold longer than that. There are some messy politics at play in the tariffs in an ever changing landscape. It’s too early to really assign much of the blame but the picture seems to be clearing up. At some point, however, we will need to understand that the industry that works together will succeed together. It will not have a winner take all scenario, people should stop trying for that.

More Demand. I’ve written about this in the past. When there is going to be a real choice of EVs in the market, with the ever expanding charging infrastructure, we will enter a new era of electric demand for transportation.

Opinion

Best, Yann

 

This is your SolarWakeup for November 8th, 2019

All About Scaling. Groups like REBA are working to make the corporate procurement deals repeatable and less scary. This effort would drastically expand the customer base and speed up the development process for renewables.

The LCOE Report. The annual LCOE report from Lazard is out. It is reaching levels of importance within even Lazard that makes headlines. The report is always informative and shows the progress of renewables based on the basic tenet of cost per kWh. This year it also resulted in an op-ed in Bloomberg written by former head of CBO and OMB, Peter Orszag.

Election Consequences. As you’ve seen, the State of Virginia has shifted to democrat control by a slim margin, something that happened for the first time in a long while. This means that the legislature will be choosing the members of the corporation commission. Dominion may desire to build 1.5GW and the legislature may want to review that choice.

Big Congrats. Congrats to Vote Solar for their new partnership with Bloomberg’s Beyond Fossil Fuel campaign. Maybe their first stop will be Virginia? Also, congratulations to the SEIA board members that won last week’s election. A passionate and diverse group of solar professionals that will do a great job moving the solar industry forward.

National RFP. This is a message for the plethora of utility scale developers and investors that read this newsletter. An informal poll if you will. Let’s assume a 100MW project anywhere in the continental US with the output sold to a creditworthy entity, like the State’s university. Which State would have the highest price and what variable is the most impactful? What would you think is the highest rate that such a project would need?

Opinion

Best, Yann

 

This is your SolarWakeup for November 7th, 2019

Back For More. More column coming tomorrow.

Let’s Do Something. Really frightening data coming out about rising oceans already being locked in.

Earnings. What’s it going to take to get a public solar company to be valued the same way as Uber?

Chapter 11 Impacts. PG&E being in bankruptcy is a problem for lots of businesses, including SPVs that own solar projects that sell energy to PG&E. 

Opinion

Best, Yann

This is your SolarWakeup for November 6th, 2019

Storage Day. Lots of storage news today, an RFP from Bay Area CCAs, large IPPs getting involved and a review of the blackouts from NPR. How much cheaper does residential storage need to get before it becomes an automatic addition? Is there a tariff arbitrage range where the time of use pays for it?

A Muni Plan. Municipalities are talking about taking over PG&E which seems like the go to argument from those frustrated with the utility. I am not sure that this is the best path, SMUD isn’t very solar friendly, Jacksonville is selling theirs and munis are typically higher cost without better products. This could work but I would suspect that it’s solving the wrong issue. A different type of oversight and the right management with the proper incentive structure seems more rational to me. This is a complex problem with a complex solution.

A Settlement. Tesla and Walmart have settled the fire lawsuit. Not many details but Tesla appears to be bringing in a third party to inspect the facilities and likely make the fixes. Which one of you has been contracted?

Solar Focus. Make sure to attend MDV-SEIA’s Solar Focus Conference on Nov 20-21. Get your tickets here. 

Opinion

Best, Yann