Join Me At Equinox. The famous Vote Solar event is this Thursday evening. Make your way to San Francisco and give to the cause that gives back to you. You can get tickets here, do it now. 

Thank You! I want to thank everyone that attended SolarWakeup Live! and the amazing speakers at the event yesterday. With 10 interviews in 8 hours, the content was packed in tight and the audience had great questions. Please support the sponsors below for their generous support of SolarWakeup events. 

This Is How You Lobby. The nuclear lobby is out of the gate and they are taking the climate change savior role. Days after receiving a $3.7billion loan guarantee on top of billions in early cost recovery, the nuclear lobby says that the world will end if State and Federal legislators act short-sighted and don’t give more to nuclear. That’s on top of free insurance and free waste management in addition to the cost recovery guarantees. Meanwhile the solar and wind industries are studying on what they want from Federal legislators and our message is being hijacked. Here is the quote from the nuclear lobby, “Now is the time for federal and state policy that values nuclear, that recognizes it for the reliable, resilient, and emissions-free source of energy that it is.” This message is ours, it’s solars to take and run with but while we are busy acting nice and standing in line, Vogtle nuclear power plant received a loan guarantee 7 times the size of Solyndra which kept solar handcuffed for years. Enough is enough, the climate change fight is too big and the solar industry is too strong to be afraid to stand up and demand our industry be supported. Two AD/CVD duties, one 201 tariff and steel and aluminum tariffs on top means that not only is out ITC declining but the headwinds are strong. Our jobs haven’t increased in over two years. SolarPledge 2.0 is coming your way, get your message in order!

Presented by Pfister Energy. Changing the way energy is generated and delivered. Pfister Energy is a leading turnkey design-build renewable energy solutions company. Servicing C&I, community and utility sectors for solar, storage and O&M. Visit pfisterenergy.com for more information.

• Greentech Media: Nuclear Energy Institute Seizes on Climate Momentum to Push for Policy Boost
• Think Progress: McConnell’s Green New Deal ‘stunt’ shows how little GOP has to offer on climate change
• CleanTechnica: Puerto Rico Passes 100% Renewable Energy Legislation
• Utility Dive: Electricity costs from battery storage down 76% since 2012 – BNEF
• Denver Post: Can solar power, agriculture and beehives co-exist? A farm outside Longmont is trying to find out.
• AZ Central: SRP approves rate decrease as directors argue about solar power and batteries
• Department of Energy: Department of Energy Selects $36 Million to Advance Solar Energy Integration

Opinion

• GreenBiz: Corporate climate action – A matter of policy

Have a great day!

Yann

Presented by ENGIE Storage. (formerly Green Charge) helps power the world more efficiently and sustainably. As the nation’s number one distributed energy storage company, we serve energy producers, distributors, and consumers, including utilities, network operators, and energy consumers in business and government.

Here is the Recap of SolarWakeup Live! happening today. This is the biggest agenda in the history of SolarWakeup Live! in the 6th edition in just 18 months. I will be interviewing 10 leaders in the solar and clean tech space in one-day, many of the conversations going up as podcasts. Starting the day with a conversation about SMART and how the implementation is going with some pushback from the utilities. I will also look to see what SMART 2.0 looks like. We also engage in a roundtable discussion about community solar and the role utilities and regulators play in the process. This will be a great day of discussion and networking here in Boston.

• Greentech Media: Report – Local Wind and Solar Plants Beat Out Majority of US Coal Plants on Cost
  
• Bloomberg: Energy’s Future Is Looking Pretty Sunny
  
• Think Progress: This is what you need to know about the Senate’s Green New Deal vote
  
• GreenBiz: Electric buses and trucks charge ahead
  
• CleanTechnica: Shell Pushes Its Renewable Energy Agenda Forward In The UK
  
• PV-Tech: Shunfeng is selling Wuxi Suntech and other manufacturing operations to reduce debts
  
• Renew Economy: Coal became a dirty word in NSW poll, but wind and solar face uncertainty

Opinion

• Utility Dive: Mandate or not? Colorado speaker, governor debate path to 90% carbon reductions

Have a great day!

Yann

Presented by CleanChoice Energy. The premier community solar and renewable retail energy service provider in the United States. CleanChoice’s marketing, sales, and operations teams offer the most comprehensive customer acquisition, retention and management service to community solar asset owners and developers in the market today. CleanChoice aspires to make renewable energy accessible to all, working with more than 40 partners in every community solar market. Our regulatory team is working to expand the community solar market and uses our relationships in state capitols to benefit our partners. The company is one of the fastest growing businesses in America, as ranked on the Inc. 500 and Deloitte’s Technology Fast 500™. For more information, visit CleanChoiceEnergy.com

Keeping PG&E Deals Alive. Ever since PG&E filed for bankruptcy, I’ve been warning that it would be more expensive and possibly impossible to do deals where PG&E is the off taker. This became more of an issue when the courts said that FERC couldn’t make itself a 3rd party to the restructuring of contracts between generators and the utility. If the energy storage project developer is really worried about getting the deal done, I wonder if they are seeking a potential buyer. I would be a buyer of this type of project at the right price. 

EV’s Create Alignment. The next decade is going to make electric vehicles the norm and for the first time in a long time, auto OEMs need to work together on standards and with suppliers to get the infrastructure right. Until the volume is high enough, OEMs will buy batteries from 3rd parties. Look at Tesla, they had to build their own battery plant to shore up their supply chain. You can also think about how this affects the solar industry and the build out of this infrastructure. You have relationships with home and building owners that are installing or already have installed solar. They may be interested to be part of the infrastructure that the transportation sector is looking for. 

Portfolios Are Moving. Large owners of assets are moving them into new ownership, taking some of their cash gains off the table and raising new cash. I will be looking for the next iteration of asset purchases from one pension fund to another, this would signal a desire to create upside in something other than having cheaper cost of capital. 

See You Tomorrow. Tomorrow is SolarWakeup Live! Boston. I look forward to seeing many of you there. 

• Reuters: PG&E bankruptcy threatens major battery storage project
• Axios: How electric vehicles force automakers to play nice
• Greentech Media: GE Sells 650MW of Renewable Energy Assets to Enel, Despite Plans to Grow Renewables Arm
• CleanTechnica: California Solar Sets Record, But That’s Not The Big News
• Renewable Energy World: Collaborating for a more resilient energy future in Puerto Rico
• ILSR: Comparing 2019 and 2018 Community Power Scorecard Rankings
• Utility Dive: FERC opens transmission, ROE inquiries as regulators spar again over climate

Opinion

• GreenBiz: Tesla’s ‘game of pennies’ is all of us (in cleantech)

Have a great day!

Yann

Presented by Pfister Energy. Changing the way energy is generated and delivered. Pfister Energy is a leading turnkey design-build renewable energy solutions company. Servicing C&I, community and utility sectors for solar, storage and O&M. Visit pfisterenergy.com for more information

Weekend Reading. Thank you for the comments on the ITC, more to come on that soon, potentially in the form of follow up questions or a survey. Make sure to go back to yesterday’s New York Times column on the massive flooding in the midwest which is devastating rural communities and family farms. Reading the Canadian Solar results makes me realize just how fragile this market is, even after a great quarter and aggressive plan, investors still long for bigger margins and diversity. 

See You Next Week. If you are coming to SolarWakeup Live! on Tuesday, make sure to send me your questions for the speakers. See you Tuesday!

• Houston Chronicle: Solar companies flock to a Texas tax break with questionable payback
• BloombergGrist: Big-Solar Owners Warn Patent Dispute Could Roil U.S. Sector
• Grist Org: RIP Coal. Long Live Coal Country
• PV-Tech: Canadian Solar expanding module capacity to 11.2GW in 2019
• Greentech Media: New Microgrid Initiative Launches in Puerto Rico Amid Energy Policy Uncertainty
• Utility Dive: Report – San Francisco has the most solar jobs in the nation
• Vox: Forget cars. We need electric airplanes.

Opinion

• Rocky Mountain Institute: Meeting Utility Investors Where They Are – Tools to Speed System Decarbonization

Have a great day!

Yann