Tag Archives: Daily Rundown

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

 

This is your SolarWakeup for October 25th, 2018

I am in Minneapolis to participate in the Connexus Energy ribbon cutting for their solar plus storage farm. As a co-op, Connexus is looking to lower the cost of energy for consumers as CEO, Greg Ridderbusch, told me in May. Co-ops are there to help consumers get more solar in every way possible, that’s why I am here even though my day job is in residential solar. Congrats to Connexus and their partners Engie and NextEra on the project. 

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 Company For Sale. The energy storage integrator that is providing the 42MWh project to Vistra Energy in Texas is up for sale. We got a view at the prospectus that the investment bankers are shopping and it shows a robust pipeline which isn’t surprising given the rise in interest in energy storage. FlexGen has been aggressive in solar given their knowledge with both AC and DC coupled systems. With energy storage increasing across the Country it is good to see the consolidation happening sooner which will likely increase the bankability of the providers in the market. If pipeline is as valuable in storage as it is in solar and the knowledge barrier in storage is greater, I don’t expect the line of bidders to be short in FlexGen. 

Checking In On SolarCity. Solar in Tesla may not be as dead as folks make it out to be. Tesla announced 93MW in the 3rd quarter which is only a few megawatts less than what Sunrun guided towards in the quarter. This means that some of the strategy of selling through the stores is working and the Model 3 ramp up may be helping. I don’t have the detail of whether the 93MW is all residential but I assume that is a decent guess. 

Solar In Arizona. A deep dive into solar in the New Yorker is not common and reading the first 1000 words made me think that it’s a good thing and it may still be. Some of the talking points come straight from the RPS opposition including things like solar only shines at some times and it is a cost increase to consumers. With solar plus storage already at sub natural gas prices in Arizona, the data in the talking points are misleading. The positive takeaway is that readers of the New Yorker are different than the readers of SolarWakeup and the broader audience is thinking about solar, I wish that it was broader than three interviewers though. 

Is Capital The Need? An interesting question, does the industry need more capital in order to meet climate goals. Couple of thoughts. The question is the wrong premise, it should ask: More Capital Needs To Be Deployed To Meet Goals. There is a limitless amount of capital interested in projects that meet sustainability goals. Additionally, the commentary could increase the scope of the capital. If capital is available for projects and the pipeline of projects is limiting the progress, then we need capital that is willing to take different risks besides fixed contract off taker agreements at return hurdles that are in line with the pipeline. Lastly, more capital needs to be willing to take bigger bets on technology risks. This last point is in line with what I’ve written about the Bill Gates concept of solving climate change with breakthrough technologies.

Opinion

Have a great day!

Yann