Tag Archives: Daily Rundown

This is your SolarWakeup for August 17th, 2018

Let’s Talk About Money. As you head into the weekend think of this positive victory. CALSSA let the industry know that SB700, a 5-year extension of SGIP, has cleared committee and is headed to the Assembly floor. This victory is due to the lobbying of the industry and the daily advocacy of CALSSA and a few larger companies with dedicated policy staff. We’ve all heard about the complaints from me and the advocacy groups is that there isn’t enough money flowing to the trade organizations. The typical response and justification is that we’re the solar industry and we won’t fight money with money, we will never have enough of it. I’ve bought this line over the years but I think it’s also become a self-fulfilling prophecy. Let me elaborate. Inside the industry, not enough companies are paying enough dues to State chapters and solar advocacy groups. I get it, money is tight in an industry that is stingy with margins. At the same time, 260,000 people in solar and if each paid $10 per month in advocacy dues, we’d have $30million more per year. Companies that do pay advocacy dues should go out of their way to support other solar companies that do as well and given the choice of two, should choose to support the one that stands side by side with us. But there is another source of money that should be supporting solar groups, groups like Vote Solar. The millionaires and billionaires that talk about climate change and renewable energy should endow our industry with hundreds of millions of dollars. That money would go to ensuring a solar advocate at every town hall, County commission and regulatory body on a full-time basis. It would also push objectives like ‘instant permits’ and electing politicians that support our industries. If they want solar to really thrive, it is incumbent on us to educate them on the political and regulatory nature of our business. We can fight power with money, we just have to ask for it more forcefully.

Opinion

Have a great day!

Yann

 

This is your SolarWakeup for August 16th, 2018

What It Takes, To Win. I had the incredible pleasure of spending the day with more than 200 solar professionals and the world class leaders from CALSSA in Sacramento yesterday. The annual ‘Solar In The Capitol’ lobby day allows groups of 6 to meet with legislators, including the members that represent the companies and individuals. Legislators thanked us for coming and helping them as they push for solar policy, the in person lobbying is irreplaceable and there should have been a thousand of us. I can’t thank Bernadette Del Chiaro and her team enough. There would be no solar industry in California without them and CALSSA and now I had the pleasure to see their work up close and personal. If you are not a member, join by clicking here.

Taking The Case To WTO. In a move that surprises nobody, China is taking the US to the WTO to review the tariffs imposed during the 201 case. It is important to note at this point that Suniva is no longer operational and SolarWorld USA is under contract to be acquired by SunPower. Don’t expect much to happen but its a process.

Free Markets. Subisidies. Sitting with republicans to talk about solar often starts with a comment about subsidies and that the free market should choose the technologies. That is complete and utter bullshit and now Rick Perry breaks down why the free markets in energy are really not free markets. Quite the contrary, energy markets are advantaged to the incumbent monopolies against competition and new technologies.

Storage Is Inevitable. In our lobby day, we spoke up for SB 700, the CA bill that would extend the SGIP program for 5 years. After the PG&E announcement to build over 1.5GWh of storage and the solar industry’s move to include storage in more systems, the future of energy storage is unstoppable.

Opinion

Have a great day!

Yann

 

This is your SolarWakeup for August 15th, 2018

SEIA’s Hopper Makes Hires. Abby Hopper, CEO of SEIA, is adding two senior hires to the team. A VP of business development will join based in the Bay Area and Jon Smirnow will join as well. Smirnow is a name you’ll recognize given that he has been an executive at SEIA before and he was active during the 201 trade case. The new executives will be joined by a VP of federal affairs that has yet to be hired.

Local Policies, Local Outreach. Policy and solar advocates have been taking the solar to the local level. The Million Solar Strong Campaign took to Long Island City with State and local elected officials to grow solar in New York and add solar to 100,000 low income households by 2023. While this was specific to New York, you could be doing this right in your backyard. As an example, 200 solar pros including 12 from the Quick Mount PV team will be heading to Sacramento to lobby for solar policies including SB 700 and SB 100. Why do we send 12 employees to lobby for solar? First, we actually shut one of our manufacturing lines down for the day so that solar pros from all aspects of our business can be heard from. Second, if we don’t stand up for our jobs and market, then who will?

Utility Choice Creates New Formulas. The first iteration of customers leaving investor owned utilities was municipalities leaving to form munis. Then it was the start of the CCAs (community choice aggregators) and energy choice initiatives like in Nevada. The issue at hand is always what happens when a customer leaves and who pays for the infrastructure that was built to serve the customer.

Yea, But What If? Bloomberg has an interesting post that shows that installed cost of solar for public companies is declining in spite of the Trump tariffs. The message is that look how great the market is working. Let me be really clear, the market would be growing faster and more broadly if the tariffs didn’t exist including the AD/CVD charges. What if, that’s the question we need to show data for.

Congrats To Conergy Team. A quick word to the team of Conergy pros remaining in Asia. I spent a great two years with many of them and now they are joining Macquarie as their solar development and EPC platform. The Conergy team is top notch, based out of Singapore, and this is well deserved corporate development.

Opinion

Have a great day!

Yann

 

This is your SolarWakeup for August 14th, 2018

Why CA Is 50% Of Solar Market. Good policy doesn’t happen by accident, it comes from effective policy representation. Tomorrow the solar industry is heading to Sacramento to push for the next year of policy including SB 100, the 100% RPS for California. I know your time and money is valuable but CALSSA has a PAC to help drive money into the political process. Please consider making a contribution.

Learning Lessons. Without knowing the details, you would expect NV Energy to stay as far away from the distributed solar policy as possible. After what happened a few years ago, it appears that NV Energy will continue to think in very short time spans about only itself. That’s why the headline about Sierra Club and NRDC joining NV Energy against energy choice seemed so wrong on the face of it.

Another Trillion To Go. Solar and wind have reached 1 terawatt in cumulative capacity which means that more than a trillion dollars have been invested. For most of those projects that means an interconnection, land rights and off-taker agreement are making that capital some of the most secure investment portfolios in the world. Let’s do it again, this time in less than a decade! 

Opinion

Have a great day!

Yann