The Energy Fair. Meet me next week in Custer, Wisconsin for the famous Energy Fair as I host a special edition of SolarWakeup Live! sponsored by Panasonic with leaders in Wisconsin’s solar market. This is my first time to this event and would love to meet many of you! More info on the event here

EVs And Stationary Storage. The Tesla business model is one that Rivian likes and is emulating. Not just making electric cars, and I hope Rivian comes out with the EV SUV because it looks pretty awesome, but stationary power micrograms as well. Rivian is looking to create a market for their second life batteries, which sounds good in theory but given where I see battery costs, that will likely be a foolish idea in 5-10 years. 

Hacking The Grid. Power outages scare me, every time I am affected by one I realize how dependent I am on electricity. I’m close to the PG&E outage zones and worry about the shutdowns much as I worried about outages post hurricanes in Florida. Worse than both of those situations is a prolonged attack by hackers on the electric grid and potentially power plants. 

GE Ventures For Sale. The venture group from General Electric is looking for an investor to buy the portfolio from the corporate. Some of the names you’d know are Stem, Sonnen (exited), AMS, FlexGen Power Systems and others. 

Oh PTC, Stay With Me. PTC and ITC are inherently different but if the wind industry has loud voices asking for the PTC to go away, why don’t they simply choose to not use it? Given where wind is being installed, see below, wouldn’t the PTC going away eliminate some of the other markets from growing?

Wind’s Political Power. Wind is being installed in areas that look like a pipeline proposal, right through the middle of the Country. It’s helping farmers, ranchers, landowners and rural America more than any other part of the Country. Looking at the map and the members of Congress that represent the areas shows how big the potential political power is in the wind sector.

• TechCrunch: Rivian and ‘Free Solo’ star Alex Honnold team up to build solar microgrid with used EV batteries
• Axios: Hacker group Xenotime doing recon on U.S. electric utilities
• Crunchbase: Here’s What An Acquirer Could Get Out Of GE Ventures
• Greentech Media: Another Wind PTC Extension? No Thanks, Many in Industry Say
• Utility Dive: Bloomberg – Waiting on climate action ‘isn’t good enough’
• Vox: 4 maps that show who’s being left behind in America’s wind-power boom
• Grist: The problem with Biden’s plan to push China on climate

Opinion

• New York Times: Where the Climate Change Action Is

Have a great day!

Yann

The Energy Fair. Meet me next week in Custer, Wisconsin for the famous Energy Fair as I host a special edition of SolarWakeup Live! sponsored by Panasonic with leaders in Wisconsin’s solar market. This is my first time to this event and would love to meet many of you! More info on the event here

Solar Investor In Congress. Dan McCready is getting a second shot to win the race for congress and he’s being accused of shipping jobs overseas since the solar companies bought Chinese solar panels. That’s a stupid argument. I hope he wins. 

Big Jobs. There are many renewable jobs in the US but globally that numbers gets real big real quick. 

Green New Deal. We can all agree on the high level goals, more clean energy, less pollution, more jobs and access to all. How do we get there? That’s a question in detail that we need to keep figuring out. 

Smart People Talking. Two of the more interesting and smart people in energy talk on the ILSR podcast. Give it a listen. 

Have a great weekend and let me know your feedback on the job board. 

• Charlotte Observer: Is global trade ‘outsourcing’ solar jobs? McCready company’s investments draw GOP fire
• Think Progress: Renewable industry employed 11 million people in 2018
• Axios: The struggle to write the Green New Deal
• Grist: Introducing the first 2020 climate plan that doesn’t sing the Green New Deal’s praises
• GreenBiz: The Defense Department is worried about climate change — and it’s a huge carbon emitter
• ILSR: Energy Monopolies – The Dark Side of the Electricity Business (Episode 74)
• Greentech Media: More States Explore Performance-Based Ratemaking, but Few Incentives Are in Place
• Utility Dive: Maine steps up clean energy turnaround, tees up 80% RPS, pro-solar bills

Opinion

• Bloomberg: Saving the World Might Mean Accepting Slower Growth

Have a great day!

Yann

The Energy Fair. Meet me next week in Custer, Wisconsin for the famous Energy Fair as I host a special edition of SolarWakeup Live! with leaders in Wisconsin’s solar market. This is my first time to this event and would love to meet many of you! More info on the event here

• Greentech Media: Bifacial Modules Win Reprieve From US Solar Tariffs
• Bloomberg: Global Emissions Rose the Most in 7 Years, BP Review Shows
• Axios: The U.K.’s big new emissions target
• Solar Industry: Six Flags Completes Giant Solar Project In New Jersey
• Electrek: Tesla’s new Solar Roof V3 will be same price as shingle roof and electric bill, says Elon Musk
• Utility Dive: New Jersey charts path to 100% clean energy by 2050, with 2 GW storage by 2030

Opinion

• GreenBiz: Four U.S. states scoring under-the-radar clean energy wins

Have a great day!

Yann

Going Public. Reuters has the news that the solar loan and financing provider, Sunnova, is planning to go public. Over the years, Sunnova has built an impressive dealer network across the Country. The filing, likely still confidential at this point, is the first step in the process but as a financing provider, the path could be primed for success. With a growing market, Sunnova is poised to succeed in this process. 

Respect The Roof. The solar industry has to figure out a plan to combat bad installers that are lying and cheating homeowners across the Country. This happens in most sectors but solar is under a microscope and some States have enacted consumer rights processes. The problem is that much of that is new and not being followed by the bad actors. The same is true for installers that are not using code compliant products and installation methods. Most of the focus is on the lending rules but not on creating a system that will work for 25-30 years, so we have to do more to get good solar on roofs across the Country.  

Retailers Fight For Solar Access. Retailers have long fought for their own secure access to solar contracts. This Bloomberg story is about Target in Virginia but trade groups have been fighting this battle ever since I’ve been in solar. 

Climate In Iowa? With terrible flooding and farmers understanding the risk of climate change, the more traditional campaign run by Vice President Biden is bringing the issue up on the campaign. In head to head programming with Trump, the Biden campaign is clearly seeing polling and voter data that says this issue brings voters over to their campaign. 

• Reuters: U.S. rooftop solar company Sunnova Energy plans IPO – sources
• Las Vegas Review Journal: Reports of solar scams on the rise in Las Vegas Valley
• Bloomberg: Target Leads Retailer Revolt Against Virginia Electric Utility
• Axios: Biden to hit Trump on climate in Iowa
• CleanTechnica: Timestamped Summary Of Tesla Shareholder Meeting
• PV-Tech: Walmart, US Solar sign deal for 36 community solar gardens
• Greentech Media: Coalition of Automakers and Utilities Unveils Transportation Policy ‘Roadmap’
• Utility Dive: Utilities must address widening business-residential knowledge gap on clean energy – Deloitte

Opinion

• Inside Climate News: As Rooftop Solar Grows, What Should the Future of Net Metering Look Like?

Have a great day!

Yann