Tax Credit News. Last week was a big week for clean energy incentives with two separate events. First, a bill was filed to add energy storage to the ITC eligibility on a standalone basis. This has been a long requested change in definition by the solar industry. More importantly, over 100 member of the house democratic caucus signed a letter to Chairman Neal asking for amongst other things for an extension of the ITC. 

Be Real. With Democrats in charge of the House, any spending bill would need the votes of the House and now a large faction is stating their ask. The clean energy industries also came out in support of the letter. Nothing will happen immediately but keep this in mind as we get into spending season after recess. This type of omnibus spending bill is what got the last ITC extension to become reality. 

Replacing Power Plants. Los Angeles is looking to find their way into a renewable future and while LADWP and local politics make it complicate, I give major kudos to Sunrun for offering another plan forward. 75,000 homes with solar and backup power would double the residential solar in LA and offset one of the power plants. To change the status quo barriers to be broken and the technical envelope needs to pushed which means that the keepers of the status quo need as much input as possible to show them what is doable. As of late, Sunrun has been doing a lot of glass shattering with their capacity auction win in ISO-NE with the help of National Grid Ventures, pay equity and their impact report. This helps everyone in the residential market, myself included, as the market is a rising tide floats all boats environment. 

Fixing C&I Credit. Check out the new concept for credit security in the C&I market. This was one of the SunShot award winners a few years ago that I found rather interesting, especially if they can commercialize and scale. 

• Utility Dive: House Democrats roll out energy storage tax credit while pushing broader clean energy incentives
• New York Times: L.A. could replace traditional power plants with home solar, experts say
• Greentech Media: Energetic Unveils ‘Game-Changing’ Insurance Policy for Commercial Solar Market
• Axios: The next mammoth industry to get an electric vehicles shakeup – utilities
• New Haven Register: As key solar perk hits sunset, CT grapples with net metering
• CleanTechnica: Comparing Electric Vehicles On “Price Per Range Mile” — You Know Who Wins
• PV-Tech: China to back-up Jinko and LONGi in Hanwha Q CELLS US ITC patent case
• Think Progress: Wheeler pledges help for Miami’s water woes but ignores climate change

Opinion

• GreenBiz: What’s new with community solar?

Have a great day!

Yann

Weekend NCAA Fun. Adam Cavitt is one of the competitors in the SolarWakeup Bracket Challenge and he’s an elite picker of NCAA games. He has 3 of the 4 Final Four teams (I have zero) and he has Virginia winning it all. This puts him in the top 5,000 pickers out of 17million. One bracket does have Texas Tech winning it all so that should make for an interesting weekend. 

Have a great weekend and talk to you again on Monday!

• Bloomberg: Power-Hungry Texas Oil Drillers Get a Little Help From Solar
• Yale: Energy Equity – Bringing Solar Power to Low-Income Communities
• Axios: Oil-and-gas giant Total’s foray into China battery tech
• Greentech Media: PG&E’s New CEO and Board Draw Criticism From Governor, State Leaders
• Grist: Batteries are key to clean energy — and they just got much cheaper
• Solar Power World: POWERHOME Solar installing a PV array at Cleveland Indians stadium
• GreenBiz: How state power regulators are making utilities account for the costs of climate change

Opinion

• Utility Dive: Floating solar offers unique bargains — U.S. utilities are missing out

Have a great day!

Yann

PG&E Says, Kick Rocks. As expected, PG&E has named Bill Johnson as the CEO and ‘refreshed’ the board of directors. The only name remotely associated with associated with clean energy is a board member of NextGen Climate. Vote Solar came out with statement where Adam Browning said, “White we need a renewable energy leader, TVA, under Bill Johnson’s leadership, is a renewable energy laggard.” PG&E came back with a soft defense of the climate progress by TVA which any solar installer in the territory could easily refute. The most telling aspect of this is the comment from someone that was friendly to PG&E last session. PG&E looks to be taking the approach of most monopolies and expects everyone to get on board with their plan and they will not get on board with anyone else’s. 

CCAs Making A Play. The California Community Choice Aggregators are coming together and offering an option to the legislators that want option b instead of bailing out PG&E. The CCAs are saying that PG&E should become a ‘wires-only’ business and let the CCAs serve the customers. This is an intermediary step to retail choice, which I would assume CCAs are not advocating for. I hope that the legislators give this a serious look in the name of safety and let PG&E focus on keeping the State safe. 

Grassley Makes Easy Statement. I was hoping that I didn’t have to read this but after Trump said that the noise from wind farms cause cancer, my phone and email didn’t stop. Now that Senator Grassley from Iowa has given a great quote on the topic, let’s highlight the “idiotic” nature of the comment. (Not my words) Solar farms may cause sunburns I guess…

Solar Needs To Do Better. Solar is going to be a marketplace for schemes and sleaze bags that are trying to get rich quick. We see them all of the time and have friends that ask us about the latest ‘rebate’, ‘credit’ and ‘energy audit’ robocall. These scams are easy to point out but we also need to have a conversation about the folks that install solar with the same attitude. I get that I am vested in this as a manufacturer of racking products and while I think everyone should use Quick Mount products, I respect most of my competitors that meet a level of engineering, testing and quality. I am happy to compete for the business of installers that follow the code and work with the building inspectors to give homeowners solar systems that will last the duration of my 25 year warranty. What solar can’t have, and what is happening, are installations that will leak next year when the installer is long gone. I have plenty of solar wall of shame content from social media and we can point to plenty of non-code compliant product being peddled at some of the biggest conferences as well.

• Bloomberg: Bankrupt PG&E Names TVA’s Johnson as CEO, Forms New Board
  
• CleanTechnica: California Community Choice Aggregators Bid For Partial PG&E Takeover
  
• Axios: Grassley – Trump’s wind turbine comments are “idiotic”
  
• New York Times: Scammers Peddling Bogus Tax Breaks Find Traction on Facebook
  
• Utility Dive: As Maine re-ups net metering, fight over solar tariffs brews in Connecticut
  
• Renewable Energy World: Arizona Public Service issues RFP for large solar + storage plant to provide ‘solar after sunset’
  
• PV-Tech: UK large-scale post-subsidy pipeline soars 67% in just six months, topping 4.2GW
  
• Greentech Media: Idaho Power Signs Super-Low Solar PPA to Buoy 100% Clean Energy Plans

Opinion

• GreenBiz: Repowering old mines with new energies in the southwestern United States

Have a great day!

Yann

More Of The Same. Bill Johnson, the former TVA, Progress Energy and Duke Energy CEO, will likely be named as the new CEO for PG&E. Working with three of the hedge funds, PG&E is nominating a new slate of directors that will not include the clean tech names that were floated by another fund. All of this will come in time for the new legislative session where Sacramento will have to decide on the bailout for the utility around the indemnities and liabilities from last years disasters. The legislature should send a strong message by denying PG&E anything and instead going all in on CCAs, solar, storage and more retail competition. First with a return to NEM 1.0 and a higher rate if a C&I project loses the tenant off taker. Maybe PG&E will realize that Sacramento isn’t playing along with more of the same. 

BlackRock Goes Clean. CleanCapital is expanding their relationship with BlackRock’s Renewable Power Group with an equity investment. Last year, BlackRock and CleanCapital acquired 60 C&I projects totaling 47MW and now BlackRock will own a piece of the development platform. More to come…

Climate Change Talks Go Mainstream. On Friday, AOC held an hourlong town hall with MSNBC’s Chris Hayes to talk about the Green New Deal and climate change. One of the important notes was AOC’s reiteration that this was a resolution and not the law. That the resolution is aspirational and with the help of Rhianna Gunn-Wright explained how the goals were achievable with the help of solar and wind. I recommend watching the event, it makes the strong case around the urgency and generational need for lofty goals. 

EV Critical Mass. Last month, 58% of all auto sales in Norway were Tesla. Ford announced a 370 mile range for their EV SUV and Mercedes is ready to announce a full electric lineup by 2022. Duke Energy is asking to rate base over $70 million in charging infrastructure including for mass transportation. I haven’t seen too many demand models include massive EV adoption to the extent that I expect to become reality. 

• Bloomberg: PG&E Is Near a Deal With Hedge Funds on CEO, Board Overhaul
• CleanCapital: BlackRock investment will fuel CleanCapital’s growth
• Think Progress: Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez answers one of the biggest questions facing the Green New Deal
• Greentech Media: IRENA – 140 Gigawatts of Solar and Wind Capacity Installed Globally in 2018
• CleanTechnica: SunPower Named Top US Commercial Solar Provider In 2018, Among Top Solar Manufacturers
• Utility Dive: Maryland passes energy storage pilot program to determine future regulatory framework
• PV-Tech: Recurrent Energy secures US$50 million credit facility from Natixis
• ILSR: Video – Accountability and Ownership Matter for Puerto Rico’s Future Grid

Opinion

• EDF: As electric trucks and buses charge ahead, how can we help them avoid roadblocks?

Have a great day!

Yann