Renewable Prime Day. Within 10 years, Amazon will be getting 100% of its energy from renewable sources. I’ll predict right now that this will happen in 5 or less years. By 2040, Amazon expects to be carbon neutral which is a bold goal given the massive number of miles the retailers moves every day. 

The Scale Expands. Rivian is the EV startup you’ve seen driving around with their electric SUV. Earlier this year they got an investment from Amazon and now you know why. Amazon will be ordering 100,000 electric vans that should start delivering in 2021 which means Rivian needs to learn to manufacture at Tesla scale tomorrow. This also makes the Amazon electrification effort more interesting. 

1.6 GW. Google entered into massive solar and wind contracts, continuing the trend for corporates into renewable procurement. 

What’s Next. If Google and Amazon want to have a network effect for renewables, they should double down on renewable policy. The billionaires have the ability to see and sustain a massive policy campaign to get to 100RE for everyone including their employees, vendor’s employees and customers. Today is Climate Strike day and is the right time for the Beyond Coal campaign to be duplicated in solar.

• GreenBiz: Why Amazon’s plan to buy 100,000 EVs is huge and hard
• CBS: Amazon promises to use only renewable energy in a decade
• The Verge: Google makes ‘biggest corporate purchase’ of renewable energy ahead of climate strikes
• Greentech Media: Trump Gets Manufacturing Win as Hanwha Q Cells Opens US Solar Factory
• Tampa Bay Times: How conservatives in Florida can get in the game on renewable energy
• Rocky Mountain Institute: Performance-Based Regulation – Getting Down to Business Model Reform in Colorado
• Politico: POLITICO New York Energy
• Utility Dive: FERC oversight battle heats up as Colorado regulators blast Tri-State petition

Opinion

• Axios: Senate Democrats allege Trump administration has buried 1,400+ climate studies

Best, Yann

No column today, sorry. Take joy in the fact that Trump is about to learn the name, Mary Nichols. Mary is California’s Air Resources Board Chair and not one you want to mess with. Those who know, know. 

• GreenBiz: Climate change and the media – More news is good news
• Grist: It’s California vs. Trump in ‘the fight of a lifetime’ over emissions standards
• Axios: Greta Thunberg to Congress – “Listen to the scientists” on global warming
• Utility Dive: Virginia Gov. Northam orders 100% carbon-free power by 2050
• Greentech Media: Buying Rooftop Solar Is Complicated, Even for an Expert
• PV-Tech: Canadian Solar trumpets new cell conversion efficiency breakthrough
• Bloomberg: Every U.S. Grid Is Getting a Lot Greener, Except the One That Matters

Opinion

• PV-Magazine: Is there more spin than solar in Duke’s zero-carbon goal?

Best, Yann

Come On Bill Gates. Bill Gates wants to shift the ITC and PTC to new energy solutions, a fair trade since solar and wind no longer need it I guess. I have an idea, why don’t we start with removing the incentives from oil and gas? Or charge flared off-gas a methane tax that is used to fund new technology development? O&G have permanent tax credits that are exempt from active/passive rules and not based on percentages while solar has dropped more than 90% in cost causing the ITC to get more than 10x the output it once paid for. Gates seems to continue the trend that solar and wind are not worth fighting for even though they are the key to fighting against climate change. I wish he would see that his words matter and choose them more carefully. 

Big Pipeline. The era of braggawatts is strong, the pipeline has reached an all-time high. 

Go Blue Jays. I always hoped to be the one that developed a solar deal with Johns Hopkins but I am still glad they did a deal. 

• Bloomberg: Bill Gates Says Wind, Solar Subsidies Should Go to Something New
• PV-Magazine: The solar wave rises
• Solar Power World: Constellation’s 175-MW solar project will power Johns Hopkins University, others
• PV-Tech: ReneSola touts profitability comeback but short-term debt looms high
• Greentech Media: Global Renewables Giant Born as RWE Approved for 17GW Pipeline Deal
• Utility Dive: New York advances toward 3 GW storage goal with 316 MW project to replace gas peakers
• Axios: EPA to roll back California’s power to enforce strict auto emissions standards

Opinion

• GreenBiz: As the world warms, the call for climate-friendly cooling heats up

Best, Yann

Are You Carbon Neutral? Aside working in solar, what do you do to reduce or eliminate your carbon footprint? I thought about this question a lot yesterday and realized that the little I do, is not enough. Tell me your biggest tricks and habits you use to lower your footprint and how you calculate it. 

Would You? Ikea is a retailer that does solar in a big way. On every roof and as an investment. Here’s a question for you and them, if they calculated the carbon cost of each product and imposed their own carbon tax, would you pay for it? This is the thought behind my carbon adjusted margin analysis. More to come. 

Tesla’s C&I Offer. On the heels of the residential solar rental, Tesla is releasing their offer for C& I sites. Fixing commercial solar is my Achilles heel and this is about as close to what I would have liked to do as possible. The offer is either cash or ‘subscription’ (PPA) with the PPA only available in PGE and SDG& E-service areas. Three standard sizes are offered with 240kW on the large end, definitely skewing to the lower size spectrum than you would expect from C&I installers. 

What It Solves. It’s cheap, 240kW for under $1.50 or 9.9cents per kWh with caveats for a standard install. That’s lower than most installers would propose. Let’s focus on the PPA though. First, no term, you can cancel anytime with a removal fee. Second, it doesn’t appear to have credit criteria (thank you!). Last and most importantly, it makes it super simple, building owners are consistently frustrated with their solar process.

Obvious Issues. I’d like to see the contracts to understand what they are really doing. There is an obvious concern for tax equity on the PPA, what happens if the cancellation happens in the first 5 years? What is the company going to do with the modules that get returned, clearly this will happen as customers look to upgrade some time down the road but within 10 years?

• Axios: Behind the energy and climate change hypocrisy in all of us
  
• Solar Power World: IKEA store owner Ingka Group invests in 403 MW of U.S. utility-scale solar projects
  
• CleanTechnica: Tesla Announces Simple Pricing On Commercial Solar, $1.01/Watt (Will Blow Some Minds)
  
• Greentech Media: Global Electric Bus Adoption to Triple by 2025
  
• Bloomberg: Nature as a spectator sport?
  
• Utility Dive: The value of customer-sited storage: It’s about more than demand charges, study finds
  
• PV-Tech: DTE issues RFP for PV projects in Michigan ranging from 25MW – 200MW 

Opinion

• GreenBiz: China is positioned to lead on climate change as the US rolls back its policies

Best, Yann