100 Ways To Clean. Remember September 2018 in your personal solar almanac. With SPI coming up in a few weeks, let me know what event I should attend, and the climate change action summit this week, Governor Brown is making the news. He signed SB 100 yesterday which drives California to a 100% clean energy future. Next up is SB700 which should be signed this week. Nothing in politics is done until it’s done so if you live in CA, please make sure to call the Governor to get it across the finish line. SB100 is aspirational and a counter program to a federal policy that lacks a goal. More importantly, this sends a signal beyond subsidies and regulatory policy that California is the solar market for years and decades to come.

• Sacramento Bee: California approves goal for 100% carbon-free electricity by 2045
• SolarWakeup: New Study – Forget About Carbon Capture. Let’s Clean Up Solar Manufacturing
• SolarWakeup: London And New York Mayors Say Cities Must Divest From Fossil Fuels In Guardian Op-Ed
• PV-Tech: Kaiser Permanente to become carbon neutral in 2020, signs PPA for 180MW of clean energy
• Utility Dive: Developers see value in California offshore wind development
• NBC: Massachusetts AG Maura Healey Reacts to Complaints of Solar Companies Preying on Elderly
• Axios: Northern U.S. states lead the way with community solar projects
• Quartz: Massive solar and wind farms could bring vegetation back to the Sahara

Opinion

• Think Progress: Green group criticizes Colorado candidate for greenwashing image with climate caucus

Have a great day!

Yann

Community Solar In NJ. Nice to see some big potential numbers associated with the 450MW community solar goal in New Jersey. Between the jobs created, local tax revenue and dollars invested, New Jersey solar is looking like it could add billions of dollars of economic benefit. With an already healthy market for solar, community solar will add more solar advocates to the roster since the benefit of solar will be available to many more people. We’ll be sure to talk about this in Jersey City in a few months.

90GWh, Let’s Talk TWh. LG Chem is increasing its 2020 output by 29% to get to 90GWh. Keep that number in your head and let’s talk about this again a year from now. 90GWh will be nothing compared to the manufacturing capacities that are coming up a few years from now, especially from China. For solar, the storage ecosystem still needs a lot of work before the market figures itself out between the spreadsheet you’re looking at and the companies like LG that are making the battery cells.

Big Win In NM. PNM had put in place a rather unsavory solar fee but it looks like that may have turned around in solar’s favor. This came at the same time as Facebook’s announcement of their new solar farms in New Mexico and reminded me of the conversation I had with a Google exec that told the story of corporations pushing for better solar access for the consumers while they pushed for their deals. Great job to the policy folks involved in this.

Big Week In CA. Everyone is watching Governor Brown this week as SB100 and SB700 sit on his desk awaiting his signature. With a global delegation of high ranking, government officials come to SF for the climate change summit, I would expect the Governor to make the announcements on these bills during a high profile event. At least that’s what I am hoping.

Are You Coming? solarwakeuplive.com Jersey City. November 6th.

• SolarWakeup: Report – New Jersey Community Solar Program Could Spur $800 Million In Economic Benefits
• CleanTechnica: LG Chem’s 2020 Battery Production Target Raised 29% To 90 GWh
• SolarWakeup: New Mexico Relieves Its Solar Consumers From Unfair, Untenable Fee
• Los Angeles Times: How California and China are collaborating to fight climate change
• Mother Jones: Solar Power Isn’t Just for the Rich (Anymore)
• Utility Dive: California regulators approve measures to propel energy storage, DERs
• GreenBiz: Financing a new, climate-friendly metropolis
• Bloomberg: Solar Farms Without Subsidy Sprout From Gloomy Britain to Italy 

Opinion

• PV-Tech: Replication of cyber attacks on energy sector a threat to renewables

Have a great day!

Yann

Please have a great weekend and enjoy today’s solar news! If you haven’t recently, please let your friends and colleagues know about the newsletter and our events. Coming next to Jersey City on November 6th.

Powerhouse Growth! A great evening for the New Dawn, a fundraiser for solar’s most well known incubator, Powerhouse. Congrats to the team and thanks to all the sponsors for supporting the early stage companies that are a part of Powerhouse. I had a great time meeting many of you in Oakland last night and look forward to seeing many of you again at the CALSSA Annual Dinner.

Big Money In Sector. Energy Impact Partners has closed a fund to the tune of $681million. The original fund was mostly from utilities that were looking to have an investment into new energy technologies and companies. I’ve thoroughly enjoyed watching EIP grow and make their investments into the space.

Co-Op Report. Rocky Mountain Institute has a new report out that talks about the overlap of coal and renewables for cooperative utilities. This goes with the report from last week where co-ops were considering leaving their generating entities to have access to more renewables both for consumer demand as well as the price. These are interesting times for consumer led utilities and a job well done by RMI.

Murphy’s Vision. NJ’s Governor Murphy has a bold vision for solar and we’ll be talking about it on November 6th, check out the speakers and agenda at solarwakeuplive.com

• SolarWakeup: Private Equity Firm Raises Nearly $1 Billion For Clean Tech Investements
• Utility Dive: Co-op solar boom raises questions about coal in utility power mixes
• SolarWakeup: Duke Energy Requests Temporary Retail Net Metering Revival In South Carolina
• SolarWakeup: The Energy Show – Solar Monitoring – the Most Common Solar Problem
• Renew Economy: The fall and rise of demand response, and the power of “negawatts”
• GreenBiz: Circularity in our solar energy system
• Axios: Nigerian off-grid solar market poised for growth
• Power Magazine: Searching for Relief from the Headaches Facing the Merchant Power Sector

Opinion

• Charleston Gazette-Mail: WV needs lawmakers to adopt pro-growth solar strategy

Have a great day!

Yann

Political Solar Irony, Plus 100. An early morning press release from SEIA highlighted one of the great results of the solar industry we’ve all created. SEIA visited the representatives of the top 100 solar congressional districts which in itself is a great achievement and they did so without great pomp and circumstance. There is a great story in the top 2, the congressional district with the most solar jobs is Nancy Pelosi while the district with the most solar capacity is Kevin McCarthy. So here you have the House Majority and Minority Leaders with something as great as solar in common.

Interesting Acquisition. Centrica, the giant multi-national company with $28 billion in revenue, is buying the Bay Area installer Vista Solar. Vista Solar is well known in the local community but not beyond that give that it has installed 40MW for 160 customers over the past 10 years. Centrica does own Direct Energy which means that it could be making a play to aggregate top-tier regional commercial installers instead of making a single national acquisition.

A SC Deal In The Works. Solar advocates have reached a deal with Duke Energy in South Carolina to temporarily reinstate the net metering rules until the spring in the hopes that it will spur a long-term deal. Given where the legislative session ended, with a victory for Duke but sentiment on solar’s side, it may appear to Duke that a negotiated settlement is the best path forward.

Get Your Ticket, Early Bird. Thanks for the great support from those of you that have already bought their ticket, over 100 of you have already done so. Early bird will only go on for a few more days so get yours now. www.solarwakeuplive.com

• SolarWakeup: Pelosi, McCarthy Top Solar Representatives As SEIA Brings Its Summer Advocacy Blitz To A Close
• Solar Power World: Vista Solar acquired by international energy company Centrica
• Charlotte Observer: Bitter solar dispute cools as advocates, Duke reach deal to allow more rooftop power
• Rocky Mountain Institute: Finding Value in the Energy Future – How Utilities Can Collaborate with Low- and Moderate-Income Customers to Do More
• SolarWakeup: C-PACE Financing Comes To Delaware, Opening New Financing Option For Commercial Clean Energy
• Utility Dive: EY – Global utility and power sector deals hit $180B in first half of 2018
• National Law Review: FirstEnergy – Bankruptcy Court Asserts Primacy Over FERC – Approves Rejection of Power Purchase Agreements
• Santa Fe New Mexican: PRC votes to kill Southwestern Public Service Co. ‘standby fee’

Opinion

• Grist: Solar isn’t accessible to half of Americans. Can community solar change that?

Have a great day!

Yann