Tag Archives: Daily Rundown

This is your SolarWakeup for November 20th, 2018

Today is the last newsletter before the Thanksgiving break as I once again look to escape the smoke and hunker down for the first rain of my Bay area living. I am thankful for your continued support and readership and hope that I am able to give you valued content every day. 

What Is The Value Of Solar? Every time this happens, a PSC looking to understand the value of solar that is, the report comes back showing that solar is worth more than the retail rate offered by net metering. This is the fundamental argument against calling NEM a subsidy. So you may ask yourself why solar never asks for a NEM rate above even credit and the answer to that is simplicity. Homeowners understand what they pay and they understand that it doesn’t matter when they produce versus when they consumer. Simplicity is the face of solar the utilities look to break in their opposition to our industry. 

The Fate Of PG&E (Once Again). There was a non-solar policy battle in California this summer centered around the liability (and ability to charge consumers for) the cost impact caused by fires in 2017. Before the fires in Paradise and Malibu are even put out, the issue is coming up again. The camp fire is the worst fire in California history and early news reports appear to question what caused the fire to spark. Look for PG&E to look at ratepayers to bail the company out which makes one wonder whether PG&E wouldn’t be better post restructuring as a wires company focused on transmission and get out of the generation and retail side of the business. I do expect that Wall Street is paying close attention and ready to make a move. 

A Green New Deal. I don’t want to debate the Green New Deal. I want to talk about the political strategy of the Select Committee on Climate Change and Green New Deal. I think America will view both of those ideas as partisan. How about the Select Committee On Clean Energy Jobs and a Wind and Solar New Deal instead? 

Get That Load. An offer to municipalities and other fleet operators to sign up for special rate schedules for their electric vehicle fleet. This is a direct attack on the oil customers and make it easier and cheaper for fleets to electrify. This is going to be copied across the Country by every utility desperately looking to growth their base load of consumption. 

Make It Easy. The New York PSC is right, “if you want people to do something, make it easy.” 

Opinion

Have a great day!

Yann

 

This is your SolarWakeup for November 19th, 2018

Escaping Smoke. No column this morning as the family and I have escaped the smoke that has enveloped the Bay area from the Camp Fire in Paradise, CA. We are now busy in Tahoe raking up the leaves. 

Opinion

Have a great day!

Yann

 

This is your SolarWakeup for November 16th, 2018

Help CA. One more re-up of this since it’s just all getting worse. 10,000 have lost their homes in the Camp Fire including many solar families and 631 people are still missing. For those of us in the Bay Area, we’re all feeling it given our inability to be outside with the heavy smoke in the air causing terrible air quality. Give anything you can to the cause and thank you to the $21,000 in donations we’ve seen already. 

Oil Play #1. Shell is making a play into the energy savings arena through some partnerships with players in the market and is a step towards the Engie move into the space last year except Engie has been aggressively acquiring companies to execute. Customer load is the key to watch here as companies will hope to be the service provider for future needs and wants by the buildings that house employees during the day. Folks that will surely be driving and charging (discharging) electric cars for many hours. 

Oil Play #2. Orsted came last week and bought an offshore wind development platform and now comes Equinor as another Scandinavian oil major acquiring part of Scatec. This is a small 10% investment for about $80million and while it may not be directly so, Scatec’s large pipeline in the US probably played a significant role in the outlook. 

Minnesota Continues Upward. The MN department of commerce says that 70% renewables is within reach by 2050. A report that would likely be made more concrete and short term if they spent a few moments with the good folks at Connexus Energy. A few weeks ago, I attended the ribbon cutting of a solar plus storage plant in MN and the cooperative utility, Connexus, engaged this project because it saves their members money now, not in 2050. 

PA Wants Solar, Will Get More. PA is looking to get to 10% solar by 2030, a plan by the State DEP that I applaud. Here’s the thing about PA solar. It’s going to be a huge market if the regulatory infrastructure allows it. A lot of the key attributes for a large solar market are already in place. 

Going Back To Solar. Tesla is lowering their prices on their home solar installs according to their VP of energy operations who recently joined from Amazon. Tesla was still building an impress 93MW last quarter and with the gigafactory in Buffalo coming online, I see it’s time to get back into sales mode. This time, Tesla looks like it will use free media to drive interest into the stores to acquire solar for people’s homes.


Opinion

Have a great day!

Yann

 

This is your SolarWakeup for November 15th, 2018

Let Mayors Help You. Mayors want to do big things because at the city level, big doesn’t take a lot. I’ve passed plenty of policy through the local council and that is where the solar industry should go more often. Let’s get some bright minds in solar together and draft the resolutions that are important in a State, take those resolutions and put them in your hands so that you can show it to your Mayor. Overnight, we’d be on the agenda for hundreds of municipalities and doing some important work at the local level. Solar permitting perhaps?

Be Aware Of Bad Solar. Florida will be ground zero for this, plenty of people want to make money overnight. Having spent the past 4 months talking to installers across the Country, I share their frustration about bad actors in solar because homeowners always call the right contractor after something has gone wrong. I don’t say this with bias, but you can tell a lot about a contractor by what type of solar mounting hardware they use. 

Let’s Make A Deal. Will folks in Arizona make a deal around an RPS type structure? I am surprised at the headline given how handily APS won the ballot amendment, I would have thought they would be entrenched in doing nothing. 

Alanis Would Be Proud. The irony is thick as the oil coming out of the ground. But when the land is available and the sun is shining, why not use solar energy to pull dead dinosaurs from the ground. Obviously add some energy storage to ensure top notch power quality and your solar power oil pump is ready to go!

Here We Go Again. Initial reports are coming in about the cause of the Camp Fire in Paradise, CA. The fire that has claimed more than 8,500 homes and 250 businesses. It has burned over 110,000 acres and is the deadliest fire in California history. According to those reports, power lines could be the reason that the fire initially started, a topic that was loudly debated in the California legislature this summer. 

Opinion

Have a great day!

Yann