Tag Archives: Daily Rundown

This is your SolarWakeup for August 14th, 2019

The Power Consolidation. Brookfield is said to be interested in acquiring Pattern Energy which signals that institutional investors are looking for more capital deployment opportunities. Look for this to continue. 

MIT Finds Value. Putting a price on the societal benefits of renewables has been hard to do but now MIT shows that increasing renewable energy in the communities forgotten by coal means not only job opportunities but also health benefits far surpassing the cost (which has been argued to be exaggerated).

Michigan Deal. Big release of PURPA queue in Michigan. I should have bought some of those pipelines that came across my desk. If you need some capital for your project, I don’t mind brokering those for you :).

Climate Change. Washington Post is out with a major data driven story on climate change. If you can stomach it, it’s worth the read. 

CA Lobby Day. Join me next Wednesday in Sacramento for CALSSA’s lobby day. You need to advocate and invest your time, bring a check while you’re at it. Give me your card at the event for a SolarWakeup shout out. Register here 

Opinion

Have a great day!

Yann

This is your SolarWakeup for August 13th, 2019

Power To The People. Now that the earnings have come in, it’s a decent prediction to say that residential solar will have its best year ever in 2019 and 2020 shows no signs of slowing down. We get a look at the market through the largest installers, where volume was strong and financial structuring was the hurdle for stock pickers but we also see the overall market strength through the lens at both Enphase and Solaredge. At the end of the day, how many homeowners would choose not having solar if given the opportunity. 

Not The Pipeline. The Trump White House is scrubbing some of the regulations in the endangered species act. While some large scale solar developers will silently agree with this move, the regulatory change is meant to help pipeline companies. I wish there was a desire to build HVDC transmission with the same steadfastness as fossil fuel pipelines. 

At Work Too. After you power your home with solar, make sure that your company is also getting solar either with onsite generation or through an offsite energy contract. It has never been easier for this to happen and my hope is that the markets adapt to the potential of retail choice by deregulating more markets. The choice creates competition and is helpful to our market. We are close to the future were retail energy providers and solar policy advocates are aligned in policy making. 

And At School. There is an interesting question about the value of the Mayor’s commitment to renewable energy. Cities, their school districts and colleges are actually some of the largest users of electricity and more importantly have some of the best credit in the energy market. Cities across America should be opening RFPs to see what is available for them and act as quasi developers. The same is true for schools and universities, use your buying scale and credit to create markets without the need for legislation. 

Opinion

Have a great day!

Yann

This is your SolarWakeup for August 12th, 2019

Save The Planet By Making Money. It’s a fact checking day. We start with Michael Moore’s takedown of the capitalism inside the alternative energy industry. I haven’t seen the movie but I can imagine it involves a bit of wall street’s involvement in project financing, corporations buying little companies and cutting overhead, and other things that go into the world of competing with monopolies in order to save the planet. One of the takeaways is probably going to be that making money shouldn’t be the goal, but if we are going to save the planet then we need financial sustainability. 

No Credit, No Future. PG&E said in its latest restructuring plan that it would not touch the existing PPAs on the solar projects. That’s great news and PG&E is spinning it as an act of goodwill. This is an act over survival. If they were to renegotiate those deals, every future solar project would increase in cost, a cost that consumers would have to pay for. PG&E would be hard pressed to explain to legislators that bankruptcy meant a more expensive path to 100% RE. 

Post-PPA Assumptions. Newsflash. Every solar project has a healthy post-PPA assumption. Do you really think that those 15 year PURPA deals in North Carolina were homeruns? They were base hits even when you include the standard Ventyx price curve and added some financial engineering to them. Look at the resi lease companies, they all include some layer of lease renewals to the deal. The logic is that the interconnection continues in perpetuity and therefore the deal has long term value as long as you have site control. This isn’t new and it has always been necessary. 

Wrong Target. This is how much energy storage is going to have to cost in order to get to 100% RE is the wrong analysis. They key is what adder to a solar or wind PPA do you need to create enough dispatch ability in the local network. You don’t need 24 hours of energy storage, the generating asset can’t keep those batteries full. We are already well below 2 cents per kWh to give a ton of flexibility to operators and soon we’ll be at under a penny per kWh. 

Still A Problem. The San Jose CCA signed a massive solar plus storage deal, which is great to see. There is still a massive disconnect which costs time and money between solar projects and off takers. This problem is even bigger in the corporate off take world where they have to find the structure, analyze the price that they can afford and then find the solar project to match. That’s a gap that needs to be fixed. 

Presented By Solargraf. Solargraf is the software you need for your residential solar business. From layouts, payback analysis and proposals, Solargraf does it all and best of all the low monthly price includes unlimited projects. Save time and money with Solargraf and with SolarWakeup you can unlock a special offer. Give it a try today at solargraf.com/solarwakeup

Opinion

Have a great day!

Yann

This is your SolarWakeup for August 9th, 2019

Have a great weekend!
Presented By Solargraf. Solargraf is the software you need for your residential solar business. From layouts, payback analysis and proposals, Solargraf does it all and best of all the low monthly price includes unlimited projects. Save time and money with Solargraf and with SolarWakeup you can unlock a special offer. Give it a try today at solargraf.com/solarwakeup

Opinion

Have a great day!

Yann