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. 

• SolarWakeup: Illinois’ Commercial Solar Segment Gets Boost From Walmart, Sam’s Club
• Think Progress: The internet mocks Trump for saying ‘raking’ forest floors would prevent California wildfires
• Greentech Media: State of the US Renewables Market – Rapid Growth and a ‘Lot of Risk’
• NPR: Kentucky Utility Regulators Block Low-Income Advocacy Groups From Rate Case
• Minnesota Public Radio: Analysis of Minnesota’s 10 percent solar goal says it can be met economically five years early
• AZ Central: Salt River Project outsmarts APS with a brilliant solar power move
• GreenBiz: State cap-and-trade systems make case for carbon pricing
• CleanTechnica: The Short-Term Economics Of A Tesla-Powered Solar Home

Opinion

• SolarWakeup: The Energy Show – High Electric Bill? – Consider These Money Saving Tips

Have a great day!

Yann

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.

• Associated Press: Sparkfund and GridPoint Partner with Shell on Subscription-Based Bundled Energy Solution
  
• Solar Industry: Equinor Acquires Stake In Scatec Solar
  
• SolarWakeup: Magnificent Minnesota – Study Says 70% Renewables By 2050 Within Reach
  
• Utility Dive: Pennsylvania DEP solar plan aims for 10% solar generation by 2030
  
• Reuters: Tesla slashes prices on home solar systems to spur sales
  
• SolarWakeup: Education Is The Key To Solar Support
  
• Renew Economy: AEMO says new wind, solar and batteries will mitigate summer blackout risks

Opinion

• Solar Wakeup: GI Energy Files Objection To Confusing New York Energy Storage Rules

Have a great day!

Yann

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. 

• SolarWakeup: More Than 200 Mayors Join Group’s Efforts To Support Solar Energy
• NBC: St. Petersburg family pays $40,000 for solar panels, still stuck with high electric bill
• Utility Dive: APS spent millions defeating Prop 127. Is a clean energy compromise ahead?
• CNBC: Oilfield in Oman set to get a solar plant to aid its crude production
• Think Progress: California’s electric utilities under investigation for starting deadly wildfires
• SolarWakeup: Canadian Solar Is Betting On Bifacial Modules In U.S. Market
• Greentech Media: Solar Loans Emerge as the Dominant Residential Financing Product

Opinion

• Arizona Central: State regulators trying to block probe into APS spending – again

Have a great day!

Yann

Your Help Is Still Needed. Dozens of solar workers have lost their homes due to the fire north of Sacramento. CALSSA has set up a donation page and your generosity is greatly appreciated, any amount helps get solar pros that lost everything back on their feet. 

I’ll Take The Usual. Can’t argue with the data on new generation, solar and wind are the default fuel when it comes to every day interconnections. The issue sits with the existing portfolio of generating capacity especially within ratebased portfolios at the utilities across the Country. A lot of the portfolio is not that old either, which means replacing it will take decades unless regulatory oversight chooses to sunset the plants early. That being said, that would require an insane increase of solar generation to be built including distributed resources that likely includes power dense fuel cell or generating equipment alongside TWh of storage. Point is, it’s doable but difficult to execute within today’s regulatory environment. 

Fight For Your States’ Rights. Here is your typical letter from 5 State Attorneys General saying that they will fight for clean energy if the Trump administration tries to slow the progress. One of those AGs works in a State (MD) that has a republican Governor. Reality is that this is not typical but notable progress for the clean energy issue to be taken up within a week of the election. Yesterday, a climate change sit-in happened in Nancy Pelosi’s office and Congresswoman-elect Ocasio Cortez joined in. More to come on the creation of the Select Committee on Climate Change. 

The Almighty Pricing Signal. Locational pricing, short term pricing, and anything that else that allows intermittent and solar plus storage to create revenues without offtake agreements would be the fastest way to increase adoption of solar. The reason is that it decreases the gap between PPA and default scenario. It also eliminates some of the risk for post term energy valuation in qualifying facilities. How to make this happen however…

It’s Not What, It’s How. I see plenty of articles about solar on farm land across America. Illinois has this conversation right now and I discussed this with Jon Carson of Trajectory Partners. The key in my opinion is not that NIMBYism on the solar farm but the desire for neighbors to know who will be their neighbor during construction and for the next 25+ years. If the development team does it properly during the initial process, they are much more likely to be successful. 

Making Utility Changes (Staffing Update). RMI and Advanced Energy Economy are out with a report on the future business models for utilities. Also of note, former SEIA Chairman, Nat Kraemer, was announced as the new CEO of Advanced Energy Economy this week. 

Be Subscribed. Good reminder to make sure that your colleagues are subscribed to this newsletter. They can do it with an email by clicking here. 

• Greentech Media: Have Solar, Wind and Storage Become the ‘Default Choice’?
• The Hill: We’ll fight the Trump administration’s assault on clean energy
• Utility Dive: Locational value of DER is essential to grid planning. So why hasn’t anyone found it?
• Axios: Farmland solar installations on the rise, but meeting local pushback
• SolarWakeup: RMI Report Offers Vision Of Possible Utility Structures In Future
• Pv-Tech: Solar ‘charging ahead’ but ‘unprecedented’ investment action required, IEA warns
• SolarWakeup: Partnership Will Test Software’s Ability To Integrate Renewables Into Grid

Opinion

• Denver Post: California home solar installer sees Colorado as bright spot in the market, opens up shop

Have a great day!

Yann