Tag Archives: Daily Rundown

This is your SolarWakeup for August 8th, 2019

Smart Energy Week. We are just over a month out from Smart Energy Week, formerly known as SPI. This year in Salt Lake City and hotel bookings show that some of you plan on attending, would love to know if the location is making you skip this year? You may have been surprised by the change in name, just as I was, given that the companies that make this event possible represent the solar market, many of you either SEIA or state chapter members. The front lobby will be greeting visitors with a hydrogen sector (newsflash: booths still available!) while the main floor is completely booked with solar companies investing to exhibit. Even meeting rooms at the hotels are almost fully booked with solar companies at a whopping $18k for the three days! After the event, about $10million in profits will go to the organization that produces the show, SETS, which will then split it amongst its owners, SEIA and SEPA. Smart Energy Week, relabeling the solar industry, taking our money and then passing it along half of it to a (largely) utility membership. See you there!

The Co-Op Canary. Tri-State is a large entity that many co-ops across the West/Mid-West are members of and buy their energy and transmission through. Tri-State has long required that individual co-ops cap their renewable energy purchasing outside of the Tri-State relationship. Last year, when I spoke to the CEO of Connexus Energy, he told me that they were capped in renewables and could not give its membership more of what they want. Now it looks like Tri-State is realizing that the future requires that it changes and with that a large number of co-ops may become possible markets for solar and storage developers. 

Resi Cost Of Capital. During yesterday’s earnings call by Sunrun, CEO Lynn Jurich highlighted the company’s achievement of the lowest cost of capital in company history. At the same time, a day before earnings, Vivint Solar enters into a $325million debt facility. Mosaic, the residential loan provider, also announced a relationship with SunTrust (soon to be BB&T) to expand their offering. 

Roll The Eyes. The future of solar in Virginia is bright led by the growth of residential solar and corporate purchasing of solar from large solar farms. Dominion has a strong presence at the Capitol and is hyping its new energy storage plan. The plan is to build 4 pilot projects and study them for 5 years. Pardon me while I yawn at the idea that Virginia should study batteries for 5 years. 

Opinion

Have a great day!

Yann

This is your SolarWakeup for August 7th, 2019

Farmers For Solar. With the farmers across America getting hurt by the trade war even worse than the solar community, now is the time to help them farm a new crop, solar panels. This is obviously a more nuanced statement but solar developers and farmers have had a bond for over a decade as the two sectors align perfectly. Going back to the last ITC extension, California farmers played a central role to explain the value of solar to Kevin McCarthy and helped create a path to the extension. This time we need local political influence from the farming community to work with solar advocates to open up new markets. Across the midwest, there are viable solar markets were it not for bad local policies that monopolize the opportunity for the powerful corporations. 

Political Statements. I’d like to see a Senate campaign make a case to lure independents and conservatives with solar. In Kentucky for example, why not showcase the success that solar has had in Texas or South Carolina and ask why solar isn’t prevalent in Kentucky creating job opportunities especially for those harmed by coal markets imploding. The ad campaign could even use the words of conservatives, like Rep Tom Massie (known for his attack on John Kerry’s Poli Sci degree), who is both a solar and EV owner. 

Opinion

Have a great day!

Yann

This is your SolarWakeup for August 6th, 2019

Mayors Of America, A New Pod. I had the pleasure of interviewing Mayor Rhodes-Conway of Madison, Wisconsin a few weeks ago. If I could interview every mayor in America, I would and this interview explains it. First, we get through 10x the content in 16 minutes and the Mayor knew what she wanted which was more solar. Give it a  listen and leave a 5-star review!

Losing Solar’s Gains. I don’t know if anyone is winning the trade war but apparently, consumers, farmers and solar stock investors are going to be hoping for it to end soon. The treasury department labelled China a currency manipulator yesterday and the market didn’t like that, erasing some of the gains we talked about last week. 

Rooftop Solar Is King. I wish we could call for solar on every house in America and more importantly find a way to put it on every warehouse while we’re at it. The benefits of distributed solar are incredible but it’s still a way too expensive to get it there. Not the hardware costs but the sales, marketing and financing costs are still way too high and we need a big initiative to get us there. 

SC Is Key. The growth of solar in South Carolina is an important evolution for our industry. Combined with Florida, Texas and Georgia, the southeast could make a statement about what solar stands for politically. Solar stands with everyday, hard-working Americans that just want to generate their own electricity and not rely on the corporate monopoly anymore. That message resonates in South Carolina and I hope the growth ahead will get us into more limelight in the future. 

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Opinion

Have a great day!

Yann

This is your SolarWakeup for August 5th, 2019

Solar In Coal Country. Coal is dying and that’s good for the environment but it’s bad for some hard-working Americans. What would it take to get solar going in Kentucky and West Virginia? 

The Public Solar Cusp. Public solar companies had a good week last week and this week we will see more companies show earnings leading with Solaredge and Sunrun. We may be on the cusp of a breakout for these companies showing what may come out of the solar market and more solar companies look at the public market as an option. 

Oil Exports, Thanks Solar. Last time the solar ITC got an extension it was paired with the oil export embargo being the lifted. The embargo was lifted in perpetuity but the ITC got 4 years. Fair? I think not. 

IPP Going Private? As the CEO of Vistra publicly muses about taking the company private, I have to wonder if he’s having a hard time explaining the future of the company to his current investors. Vistra has been a leader in energy storage and adding some solar, you can only imagine that this is a big part of the future plan. If the investors can’t buy into the next era of the company maybe going private is the best thing for the CEO, because the investors may just find a CEO that focuses on the now instead. 

NYT Writer Is Wrong. Many of you have already seen this but a contributing opinion writer to the NY Times basically said that Greta Thunberg’s activism is bad for democracy because she’s too young to actually ask politicians to do something. 

Opinion

Have a great day!

Yann