No column today, more solar news coming your way tomorrow. Have a great day!

• SolarWakeup: A Tale Of Two Business Models – Could European Utilities Offer Path Forward For U.S. Counterparts?
• Energy News Network: In Massachusetts, solar developers linger amid financial uncertainty
• Greentech Media: Shopping for Community Solar? Contract Terms Are Getting Friendlier
• Renewable Energy World: New Mexico Ratepayers May Soon Enjoy Cheap Renewable Energy via the EIM
• SolarWakeup: New York Joins Powering Past Coal Alliance To Protest EPA Policies
• CleanTechnica: Leading UK Pension Funds At Risk Of Climate Change
• Utility Dive: Tucson Electric proceeding lays groundwork for customer solar+storage rate

Opinion

• The Guardian: Don’t phase out solar panel subsidies, Sadiq Khan urges ministers

Have a great day!

Yann

Solar Inverter Wars. Frank goes inside some of the behind the scenes that are causing a long-awaited product release by Huawei to be delayed. Huawei has largely avoided the public image place on ZTE by Trump but it hasn’t been able to avoid the impacts caused by tariffs. Other residential inverter companies have had to adjust their supply chain as well but the release of the Huawei line has been talked about for years at this point. It would be interesting to have transparency on the other business moves that have had to adjust due to tariffs of various nature.

Screw Solar, Go Clean Coal. Yesterday was quite the news day and dropping to the bottom of the media’s list was the fact that the administration proposed a coal policy that would kill 1,400 people. This isn’t a study by a think tank or advocacy group, this comes straight from the EPA. That’s not 1,400 total, that 1,400 per year by 2030. Over a 10 year period that’s 14,000 Americans dying for no good reason whatsoever. If we can’t make the case against this, we’re less prepared to fight than anticipated.

A Clean Energy Vision. GTM’s Julia Pyper has a great interview out with Senator Heinrich about his vision for 100% renewable energy. I won’t steal the thunder but I do want to point out that when Senator Wyden, also a democrat, was at the US ITC arguing for tariffs on behalf of SolarWorld, Senator Heinrich spoke right after to argue solar’s case. He gets the vision of our industry and I applaud him for seeking out the industry media to make his case for a vision we agree with.

Going Inside Tesla. I have a newfound respect for folks that operate manufacturing plants and I love to get an inside look at how others are doing it. Obviously, Elon is a particular level of special, love him or hate him, (I’m a fan) and you have to respect that ability to roll out products that wow the consumer. I’m sure this will drive the typical love/hate emails that usually accompany Tesla comments from me, but put it aside and enjoy this interview. It’s pretty cool.

• SolarWakeup: Ancillary Tariffs Could Screw Up Huawei Product Launch
• New York Times: Cost of New E.P.A. Coal Rules – Up to 1,400 More Deaths a Year
• Greentech Media: Senator Heinrich – A 100% Clean Energy Grid Is ‘Completely Doable’
• CleanTechnica: A Look Inside The Tesla Fremont Factory With Elon Musk & MKBHD
• CNBC: The Los Angeles Lakers just partnered with LG to bring solar power to the training centre
• Venture Beat: Forget the Saudis – Apple or Google should acquire Tesla
• Bloomberg: California Wants to Unite the Western States Under One Power Grid
• Axios: What’s driving our climate and energy divide 

Opinion

• GreenBiz: Microsoft’s energy master plan

Have a great day!

Yann

Given my updated schedule for work and my continued desire to provide value to you on a daily basis, there will be days that I’ll write one extended paragraph instead of the multiple topics. I don’t mean to cheat you out of good content but until every single reader is a customer of Quick Mount PV (not sure why that hasn’t happened yet), I will be pounding the pavement to get you to switch. Hope you’re all on board with this message and I appreciate the understanding. For the other (one person) that thinks the content has gotten to spammy since I joined Quick Mount, thanks for playing along!

Future Of Energy Savings. If you play out the game plan and use New Mexico’s demand charge as a sample, you can see a tricky future for the ‘rate design’ 3.0 era, especially in markets where solar doesn’t gain enough strength to thwart any of these attempts. Storage is going to drop costs much like solar dropped from $2.50 to $0.75 per watt perhaps even faster. With storage becoming a standard part of solar, cheap solar, any utility costs may become an added savings to the solar install. That would leave the utilities to move from solar NEM fees and demand charges to minimum bills and increasing those to make up for the lost revenues. However, if the system is completely isolated, what would the argument be? With net metering, the argument is that the solar generator has access and is using the grid during overproduction. In non-export systems, it would simply be a lost revenue argument where the fight would be that some customers don’t have access to solar or that the grid was built for all customers and they must pay for what was built in the past. I’d love to hear your thoughts on this.

• SolarWakeup: New Mexico Commission Could Eliminate Stand-by Fees On Solar Customers
• Washington Post: New Trump power plant plan would release hundreds of millions of tons of CO2 into the air
• Utility Dive: Michigan coal closures prod small muni to go 100% renewables
• S&P Global: Xcel Energy proposes replacing Colo. steel mill’s coal-fired power with solar
• Think Progress: Trump reveals how little he knows about his coal and nuclear bailout plan
• Renewable Energy World: Coal Subsidy, Solar Project Tangled in Case Before Ohio Supreme Court
• Solar Builder: Sunnova to start selling solar services in Illinois
• Electric: Tesla starts expanding its massive solar array at Gigafactory 1

Opinion

• SolarWakeup: Could EVs Eliminate The Need For Stand-Alone Batteries? Berkeley Says Yes

Have a great day!

Yann

SB 700 Advances In CA. After a great day of lobbying by the 200 solar pros in Sacramento, SB 700 came out of the House Appropriations committee with a positive vote on Thursday evening. This means that the bill heads to the House floor and is expected to come to a vote. If successful, the bill may head to the Senate before going to Governor Brown. This is a fantastic bill that extends the SGIP funding for 5 years and lays the groundwork for future Governor Newsom to lead solar further down the road. A 5 year SGIP is key to solar’s growth given the importance of storage within a solar value proposition in time of use rates. California would lead the volume that drives the cost of storage down for States that are a bit more aggressive on net metering than pro-solar markets.

SC Utility Board Ousted. As I often do, I go to Twitter to see what is happening and a story made its way through energy Twitter on Saturday. A shareholder meeting of a co-op utility in South Carolina was gathering a crowd that was far bigger than any before it. When it was all done, shareholders voted to fire the board by an overwhelming margin for abusing their positions and excessive pay amongst other things. It’s an incredible story that could be a precursor for utilities across the Country if they abuse their positions.

Module Costs Decline. I’ve stopped guessing what happens to the stocks, especially solar stocks but this review of First Solar takes the view of module costs which is interesting. What happened to the pricing after tariffs and where is it going? I’ve heard not only Chinese pricing but all module prices dropping consistently into a market favorable way. Let me know what you’re seeing.

The Impact Of Policy. Utah is a strong solar market and has shown great residential solar growth. Some of the largest residential solar companies are based there. But with limited local advocacy support there was a change in net metering that has caused a bit of a reset. I’ll be looking at the State chapters a year after speaking with many of the State chapter directors to see how the industry can prop them up.

Solar Compared To Homebuilders. Homebuilders have national brands but for the most part they are quite fragmented like the solar industry. Jon Carson uses homebuilders as an example of a market that does very well in DC. Here’s my discussion with him.

• SolarWakeup: California’s SB 700 Moves Forward To Full Assembly Vote – Next Three Weeks Are Critical
• The State: SC utility’s board thrown out of office by more than 1,500 customers at meeting
• Motley Fool: Why First Solar’s Price Advantage Is Gone
• Standard Examiner: State of Utah solar – Installations take a dip while industry adjusts to net metering change
• SolarWakeup: Maine’s War On Solar Continues As Supreme Court Rejects Net Metering Appeal
• Arizona Daily Star: Tucson Electric Power customers may see new rate for energy-storage systems
• Greentech Media: As Bifacial Solar Modules Inch Toward the Mainstream, Equipment Makers Prepare
• San Diego Union Tribune: Study says California ratepayers to see $3.2B in relief due to the federal tax cut – SDG&E mum

Opinion

• Think Progress: Trump’s trade wars harming one of West Virginia coal industry’s few bright spots

Have a great day!

Yann