Tag Archives: Daily Rundown

This is your SolarWakeup for October 31st, 2018

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.

Storage Study. Just a few days before our keynote interview with the NJ BPU President at SolarWakeup Live! the BPU has awarded Rutgers the grant to study energy storage and how it should be implemented. The $300k grant will allow the BPU to implement the clean energy rules around energy storage. The BPU has also released information about SRECs for projects before the new plan is put in place. 

Storage Implementation. Just north of NJ and PJM, ISO-NE is working on its own implementation of energy storage. In addition to the ISO-NE, storage will be prevalent in the market within MA through SMART. All this to say that the storage integration future is well underway. Count 2020/2021 as the key breakout years while the markets work through development and capital education in the next year. 

Retail Energy Storage. An interesting twist to buying clean energy through retail choice programs. CleanChoice, the clean energy retail energy provider, is working with homeowners to have them add energy storage in the home for backup purposes. The interesting marketing angle is that this could lengthen the relationship between the homeowner and the retail company, creating a stickiness in the home between the two similar to cable or alarm providers.

Opinion

Have a great day!

Yann

 

This is your SolarWakeup for October 30th, 2018

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All About The Lease. Duke is asking the North Carolina commission to approve the deregulated services group to provide a lease for onsite solar projects. This is the first entity that I have heard of to provide onsite leases and the details stay clear of the benefit to the business owner. From a regulatory perspective this is a departure of the standard protocol to separate regulated and deregulate entities. It is not common practice to allow both side of the house to compete in the same market geography. 

What’s Next? It is becoming a full time job for many reporters to cover Elon Musk and his adventures to save humanity on Earth and beyond. I do find some of the other musings by Musk to be of interest, especially as he begins the thought process beyond vehicle ownership. This is an interesting logic to have to encounter as the CEO of an auto OEM but reality given the future of autonomous vehicle infrastructure. One utility exec once gave me his viewpoint that the utilities would in fact be the taxi company of the future, consumers paying for it with the same account they paid their utility bill with. 

Underestimating Municipalities. This could be the story all about how the municipalities caused the IOU business model to turn upside down. In Kentucky, a place where utilities have always gotten along with customers until of course the free market gave options that made them look at a different option. It’s curious that if IOUs get too greedy and stay anti-solar that Cities across the Country may lead the charge for change. 

DG Value Analysis. This may be the first, correct me if I’m wrong, analysis of distributed energy storage projects. In conjunction with net metering (I know it may be duplicative) this could result in a great benefit to the grid by the distributed solar plus storage assets. 

Overflow Room Opened. We’ve reached the original capacity of 150 seats for the SolarWakeup Live! event next week but we’re opening the extra seating section for another 30 seats. Get yours now to join us next week. 

Opinion

Have a great day!

Yann

 

This is your SolarWakeup for October 29th, 2018

Presented by Aten Solar. Your single source in adding value to your supply chain and procurement.  Aten Solar is your go-to source for the best closeout pricing on new and surplus modules for your project needs.

Sununu Sticks To Talking Points. A new metering bill in New Hampshire passed the legislature and has been vetoed by the Governor. Sununu gave his best to argue cost shift as the main reason but we know where most of this comes from. One of the useful arguments in other States has come right from the customers, instead of solar professionals. This could be a useful tactic to show that solar means more textbooks for kids paid for with the energy savings. 

Hmmm, GM Goes All In On EVs? General Motors proposed a change to the emissions targets to the Trump administration. Instead of focusing on higher efficiency vehicles, GM wants a zero emissions target which puts 7 million EVs on the road by 2030. This appears to be a positive shift towards EVs but also slows the ICE fuel standards by focusing the plan on EVs. The target of 7million by 2030 is rather small in my opinion and it would be best to let the market drive the adoption of EVs instead of the standard. 

Solar Makes News, Not Headlines. We had the Musk versus Buffett stories when Nevada was debating net metering and now we have Adelson versus Buffett. The story centers around the energy choice ballot initiative which Adelson wants to see passed. Casinos, which Adelson owns, want to buy their own energy including really cheap desert solar and storage instead of having to buy electricity from NV Energy which Buffett owns. Consumer choice is the argument here. I doubt Buffett is very much involved in the argument except for the push to his CEOs to generate more free cash flow but he’s on the wrong side on this one. 

Future of CCAs. By 2030, I expect that most consumers have retail energy choice and an IOU providing wire services. This is the natural progression from the IOU system we have today and surely looks like CCAs are the way to handle that in areas that IOUs have franchise agreements. At some point the market will likely have to make this a bit clearer but in the meantime, California is a test case for what happens when there is mass adoption of CCAs. 

Catch Up NY Times. Sunrun versus Tesla/SolarCity, centered around Tesla leaving the top spot is a year too old of a story but just in time for the NYT I guess. Just last week I wrote about the surprising data from the Tesla earnings call and how they appear to make a run at the top spot now instead of coming in shy of Sunrun. Still good for solar to make it to the national pages of the NYT. 

One Week Out. Join us next Tuesday in Jersey City for SolarWakeup Live! including a great happy hour right after the event. 

Opinion

Have a great day!

Yann

 

This is your SolarWakeup for October 26th, 2018

I hope you have a great weekend, all things are looking up in solar. Solar on!

Better Solar Means Better Market. North Carolina is having all state chapter members sign a code of conduct and ethics. Not only new members but also existing members. It could be expected that the market will educate consumers of this fact and guard consumers to only do business with companies that are members, therefore having signed the pledge. This is in line with the thought that members should do business with members because such a circular membership economy makes the trade group much more valuable and powerful. 

Oil Versus Energy. It’s getting loud and public in the industrial battle of the 21st Century. When the Ford Model T came out, oil companies were happy to serve as the fuel source while the Edisons worked to bring light to your home. The industries didn’t cross much and kept away from each other in legislatures across the Country. That is all changing and the coverage from E&E News highlights that oil companies will seek to slow the adoption of EVs by slowing the deployment of charging infrastructure. 

How Would You 100%? With SB100 enacted, the CPUC wants to see the plan from utilities about their plan to reach 100%. I look forward to seeing a decarbonized, decentralized energy transition. How would you make it happen?

VA Charges Forward. Virginia has turned quite the corner towards renewables, as if the State has taken the mantle from the mid-Atlantic states and moved to push it to the next limit. The market is still lacking on the distributed side, something I assume is based on the headline cost of electricity without taking into account the network savings. States should be getting their residential markets up to 250MW or better per year without any limitation that causes ups and downs in the market. 

More Solar Jobs! More training dollars for solar jobs. This is one of the biggest limitation in the growth of solar companies that cannot find enough labor for their installations. We need to start thinking about the programs that will funnel electricians and installers that work in solar into the workforce so that solar companies can compete for them and help build the solar economy. 

Opinion

Have a great day!

Yann