Tag Archives: Daily Rundown

This is your SolarWakeup for April 13th, 2018

We Want Solar. We’ve gotta stop being surprised when we see polls that show Americans wanting more solar. This isn’t just an environmental decision, it’s also one of control of cost and of self-reliance. A poll would likely show Americans preferring to disconnect from the grid but that’s a different topic. In a Q&A with Dan Rather last night, the first question came about science and climate change which makes me wonder where we fall short in spreading our message. A few years ago, a leading solar advocate told me that it doesn’t matter how much money solar has in its coffers, it would never win based on spending or campaign donations. Solar wins because of the people on the Capitol steps and marches in front of the PUC. I can’t help but think that all of these conversations we’ve had over the past few weeks about money vs values, that this advice is as true as ever and these polls are proof of that. Open the tent, it doesn’t have to be gold plated.

Solar Moves To EV Charging. GM is signing a deal with EVgo to get more fast charging done. EVgo is an interesting story with notable solar ties. EVgo was acquired from NRG, post David Crane, by Reuben Munger’s investment firm, Vision Ridge. Since then, in recent months, solar veterans Cathy Zoi (DOE, Silver Lake, SunEdison) and Julie Blunden (SunPower, SunEdison, CalCEF) have joined the company.

Do You DER? It seems that a gathering workshop on the FERC 841 order has attracted quite the attendees. Were you there? What was your takeaway?

Vehicle To Grid. Using your EV battery for distributed resources seems like a strange way to use an expensive battery in your car, causes all sorts of issues to the lease transaction and makes non-energy professionals have to trust a new market. Some companies are road testing this technology and I can see how this could work in the future. My guess is it happens in some fashion at some point.

MidWest Solar, Illinois. The Land of Obama is finally going solar (and other RE/EE). I am extremely bullish on early stage development in that region and see opportunities for all segments of this market. The politics could play well, as well as politics in Springfield could look at least. We will be announcing our dates and agenda for the Illinois event shortly, stay tuned.

Opinion

Have a great day!

Yann

This is your SolarWakeup for April 12th, 2018

See You In Charlottesville. I’m not the only one leaving town (I see you Paul Ryan). I’m on my way to Charlottesville to moderate a panel on solar investments and financing at the Tom Tom Festival. Let me know if you are in town for this.

Shame In SC. I thought  60-40 victory in the SC House would mean that a mild solar win for the industry was safe. BUT never underestimate the power of greedy monopolies, especially in Southern States. Using some crazy legislative tactics, the utilities got the House to reconsider the matter AND requiring a 2/3 margin to pass. This failed to happen and the bill died, for now, costing SC around 3,000 jobs. These jobs won’t come back in the nuclear industry, after that $9billion boondoggle, but hopefully legislative leaders will see a way to fix this. Frank and local news on the topic.

Monopoly Regulations. More on the topic of what monopolies should be allowed to do later but since SC happened, I’ve been giving a lot of thought to the legislative power investor owned monopolies have through their lobbying. A monopoly is given to a private corporation for the public good, to have a responsibility to serve the consumer in the best way possible for key markets, energy being one. Having that privilege should come with restrictions, especially around influencing politics and participating in competitive markets that they could have an unfair advantage in. I believe, and most consumers would agree with me, utilities should be prohibited from lobbying and should be treated like non-profits that are only allowed to educate. No political fundraising or underhanded legislative tactics should be allowed by someone that already has 100% market share.

The Energy Show With Barry Cinnamon. Is now available on SolarWakeup. His latest episode about microgrids is here. We are excited to have Barry join the SolarWakeup community as we continue to grow and look forward to hearing his podcasts going forward.

More Murray Quotes. Another gem from Murray, saying “People will die in the dark” if coal goes away. Quite the opposite, no more mining accidents and cleaner air will mean society lives longer and solar will keep the lights on.

The Quiet Bus. If my kids could ride the Tesla electric bus, they definitely wouldn’t want me driving them to school. I discussed the school bus route with Proterra’s CEO in this podcast.

Opinion

Have a great day!

Yann

This is your SolarWakeup for April 11th, 2018

What Energy Future Do You Want? Sunrun has been busy this week. CEO, Lynn Jurich, has authored a report that asks the question we already know the answer to, what should be the default scenario for utility investments going forward? Do we rebuild the century old poles, plants and wires or focus on distributed generation in smart energy systems? For Sunrun, and others, the hope is to get consumers upset at the status quo and expect a newer, better system. My hope is this report makes it into the mainstream, it’s lengthy but simple enough to be understood by those outside of our industry. Here is the report

My Convergence Thesis Is Coming True. Solar is a vital part of the EV revolution which means that as the energy sector seeks new generation caused by automobile OEMs building more EVs, the two sectors will come together into one. Your utility, solar contractor, auto manufacturer and energy IPPs will all serve the same market. Look to the latest move at E.ON as a BMW board member joins the supervisory board.

Energy, Carbon, And Baseload. I didn’t watch the BNEF Summit live, just reading the twitter coverage makes me realize how we are still stuck in the past in so many ways. Wind and solar development are causing our energy grid to get cleaner (and cheaper) but holding back the replacement of fossil based plants is delaying the inevitable. I get that Tom Fanning and Rick Perry make for nice names to have at a conference but I don’t understand having Bob Murray the coal magnate at the NEW energy finance summit.

More On Murray. He has some funny commentary about his oil and gas colleagues. Sub-tweet is the fact that he’s showing who is true enemy is and what really killed coal.

Unrated Credit. As a reminder to you, each afternoon Frank writes up the story you found most interesting in that day’s SolarWakeup email. The story that gets the most clicks gets a follow up. I spoke with CleanCapital’s President, Jon Powers, about what the raise means to the company and how it advances C&I solar.

Opinion

Have a great day!

Yann

This is your SolarWakeup for April 10th, 2018

Big Florida Solar News. We’ve got some original news for you that is staying under the radar and it’s big. Everyone around solar knows that Florida is not a fan of allowing third parties to participate in Florida when it comes to financing solar projects. Sunrun has decided that now is the time to move forward and figure out how strong this prohibition is. The company quietly filed for declaratory judgement on their lease product at the PSC, asking the commission to basically allow them to conduct business without being considered a utility. The hearing is in a few weeks and if it passes could open up the Florida market for large scale growth that isn’t solely held by the incumbent monopoly. The story here.

BNEF Summit, Loop. It seems that Rick Perry and Tom Fanning are staples the BNEF Summit in New York. It’s a safe place for them which is the give and take for conference organizers. (If you don’t question their talking points, they won’t come) Rick Perry made the interesting comment that we [America] doesn’t want a free market in the energy sector. Maybe he means that literally but its a far cry from the ERCOT system in Texas he is used to. Perry did say that he doesn’t think 202 emergency declaration makes sense for the First Energy case but that he wants those plants to continue operating.

Big C&I Money, BUT Credit. CleanCapital has raised $250million of capital for projects to build a $1billion portfolio from CarVal Investors. If this capital is going to scale in C&I, then they’ll have to figure out how to drive volume and driving volume means figuring out how to do repeat transactions with unrated credits. My friends at CleanFund are growing commercial PACE that may have a way of helping that scale and leverage come together, wonder if they’ve spoken because more C&I solar is great for everyone, more on that tomorrow.

Solar Pays For Nuclear. Southern’s CEO, Tom Fanning, was also at BNEF Summit in New York yesterday. He mentioned that the future of Southern is carbon free with renewables, clean gas and nuclear. Vogtle is a nuclear plant that is still being supported by the regulators and consumer’s money but Southern needs more money. How do they get that extra money? They are selling a third of their solar portfolio! Who knew that solar investments can be so flexible.

More Solar In Mass, Need Money? I’m excited about the MA market going forward. More solar is needed especially with the power plants on track to close near to Boston. SMART development is starting up but it’s costly. If you are looking for development capital, let me know, there are investors eager to partner with you and your projects. (And I need to send my kids to summer camp)

Opinion

Have a great day!

Yann