Tag Archives: Daily Rundown

This is your SolarWakeup for March 5th, 2019

Busy week here in the Walnut Creek headquarters so some quick notes on what is on my desk right now. 

The Trade War. General optimism about the tariffs being settled is making the rounds in corporate board rooms. Mostly we are looking for our long term supply chain pipelines to come back to normal and many domestic manufacturers are looking for that as well. Lead times are unsustainable right now causing lots of crunch on procurement offices. 

Corporate Solar Responsibility. As DTE energy is looking to kill rooftop solar in Michigan, it strikes a renewable supply deal with GM and Ford. GM and Ford have a responsibility to make sure that their employees have access to the same type of renewable energy as they do. Using their power for their own advancement without trickling down the benefits is short sighted and hurts the effort. 

The RPS One-Uppers. I’m all in for States to compete on their own versions of the RPS. Sooner, renewable or other is the type of 100% debate that helps the markets. 

Nuclear Schemes. I doubt that the real truth about the Georgi & South Carolina nuclear boondoggles will ever come out but you can read between the lines here. That is why I get frustrated when renewable energy advocates get labeled as anti-nuclear. I am anti-nuclear subsidies and rule making because even when the industry has been given EVERYTHING, free insurance, free cleanup, free water and early cost recovery from ratepayers, they have failed to build anything at all. Nuclear isn’t dead because ‘environmentalists’ won, nuclear failed because of their own lack of execution. 

Opinion

Have a great day!

Yann

 

This is your SolarWakeup for March 4th, 2019

Community Solar Goes Mainstream. The most relevant topic going on in solar, especially in the Northeast, is community solar. The benefits are giving access to solar for renters and consumers with lower FICO scores, lowering the cost by building bigger facilities and not needing long term contracts. That is why I am bringing the experts in the field for a super sized panel to SolarWakeup Live! in Boston. Reps from CleanChoice Energy, BlueWave Capital and Ampion know the space and will share their knowledge. 

Fight For PG&E’s Board. Things are warming up in the PG&E board room. While a bailout bill is being floated in Sacramento, shareholders are fighting for control of the board room. BlueMountain Capital, which owns significant stake in PG&E, has written a letter to the shareholders and plans to nominate a brand new board of directors. There are some notable names on the list which you will recognize

  • David Crane, former CEO of NRG Energy and on the board of Vote Solar
  • Mark Lerdal, long time IPP executive including solar through MP2 Capital and others
  • Jeffrey Ubben, CEO of ValueACT and director at AES. Ubben was active in pushing HECO towards a clean energy future

The other names on the list are recognizable as well but for our sector, the position of BlueMountain is that they want to increase the stock price but also recognize that to win in the court of public opinion, clean energy has to play a central role. We’ll come back to this but the future likely revolves around the legislature’s openness to wildfire indemnity. Look for this board battle to move quite a bit over the next week. 

Real Time Markets. There is an imminent future where solar providers are able to include storage on the projects and participate in real time markets on behalf of the asset owners. This can be a lease, a loan or cash deal but the result is a dividend/cash benefit paid back to the home/business owner in addition to energy savings. That is un-contracted revenue to the upside and that’s the ballgame my friends!

Making Climate An Issue. Governor Inslee is running for President and his central issue is going to be climate change. While the campaign is considered a long shot by pundits, Inslee’s national recognition is going to give him the platform to make his case. He will likely rejoin Pod Save America and other major platforms to speak to millions of Americans about his platform. 

A SunPower Tease. A promoted Linkedin post is quite actively targeting the solar community. No insight on what it is but I expect that it will be released at the Dealer Conference this week. Here is the video teasing the Next Gen Technology

The Winning T-Shirt Design. See below to see the winning t-shirt that my kids will be wearing on March 15th. Thanks to Mathew Sachs for remember the words of David Crane. “You knew…And you didn’t do anything about it? Why?”

Opinion

Have a great day!

Yann

 

This is your SolarWakeup for March 1st, 2019

Tesla, It’s Here. Tesla has announced some major changes including the release of the long awaited $35k model (before incentives) and guided to almost half a million cars to be manufactured. That’s a lot of EVs. The result of the lower priced car is that the stores will be closed and all purchasing will be done online. This obviously impacts the plan to sell solar in the stores and maybe the idea is to also sell solar online. Installers tell me that they are doing well with Powerwall 2 but I don’t see how Tesla Energy will focus on keeping up with others on the solar side. 

DIY, Retail Solar. Q4 last year was massive, all data pointed that way and Sunrun executed with 115MW installed in the quarter. The company also announced that it would go into Home Depot stores in 15 States, at the same time that Vivint Solar announced it would enter 200 Home Depot stores in 8 States. This comes after Tesla announced it was leaving the Home Depot channel last June. Now is the time for both companies to focus on the sales and financing strategies that turn solar companies into billion dollar revenue businesses while letting my team manufacturer and supply them the racking. We’ve got a wonderful factory in California ready to serve! (same goes for all of you!)

Solar Homes, In Texas. While everyone is looking at the California new home market opportunity from the solar mandate, other developers are going all in on the net zero construction trend. Award winning Whisper Valley in Texas is building 7,500 homes near Austin with solar coming as a standard install on every home. The good folks at Rocky Mountain Institute also tackle the topic of net zero homes in a post today. 

Speaking To And Of Homeowners. Ever wonder what happens to the homeowner after you install solar? Make sure you are getting them involved with Solar Rights Alliance by having them opt in to join the group automatically. I interviewed Dave Rosenfeld, the executive director of SRA, about how this works and why it is so important. The episode is presented by UtilityAPI.com/Wakeup. Check out how you can get your customer’s meter data in minutes instead of weeks. 

SolarWakeupLive.com. SWLB20 for 20% Off, 1 month out!

Opinion

Have a great day!

Yann

 

This is your SolarWakeup for February 28th, 2019

New POD, Solar Bill Of Rights. Last week a new solar bill was filed in California but this bill was focused on consumers’ rights and bipartisan. The Solar Bill of Rights is driven by the Solar Rights Alliance and I speak with their executive director about the bill and the focus of the SRA. The SRA needs you to think about how you can be helpful in this as well, please subscribe, rate and review on your favorite podcast app. This episode is presented by UtilityAPI

Solar Tariff Fallout. Take a moment to read this article by Bloomberg on the topic of the steel and aluminum tariffs. In many ways, the factories (including the one at Quick Mount PV) are exactly the jobs that Trump seems to focus on. Many of the racking companies in solar use 3rd party contract manufacturers and many of those are in the US. With the tariffs in place, domestic commodity pricing has increased and importing parts and pieces has become more expensive than procuring finished products abroad according to the reporting. This means that the local jobs that depend on competitive commodity pricing are hurt by the tariffs causing the result to be the opposite of the intended effect of the policy in the first place. 

Developing In Florida. Disney is going solar with a 50MW project through their coop utility. There has been some quiet development out of the team from Origis like this project and the one in Tallahassee which was first discussed in 2008. Nice to see things happening in my former home state given the decade I spent joking that the only solar jobs were at the airport for those of us flying out of State. Now Florida is the second largest jobs employer and has their own “SPI”. I must have missed the phone call from the show producers :). 

Missed TVA Opportunity. During the Obama years, the solar industry should have absolutely packed the team at the TVA and at the TVA board. This is also true for the regulatory bodies across the Country, the NJ BPU President was recruiting for staff at the last SolarWakeup Live! event. We need solar advocates to be working in the regulatory bodies, maybe a Federalist club version of solar where we provide internships and fellowships to folks that want to work in regulatory bodies. 

SolarWakeupLive.com. SWLB20 for 20% Off, 1 month out!

Opinion

Have a great day!

Yann