11 States To Feel Sting Of Cypress Creek Retrenchment

By Frank Andorka, Senior Correspondent

Though North Carolina will bear the overwhelming brunt of Cypress Creek Renewables’ decision to cancel 1.5 GW of projects in the wake of the Trump Administration’s tariff imposition, it isn’t the only one.

In all, 11 states will feel the sting of what company spokesman Jeff McKay called the “lost investment opportunity” that will result from its pullback.

“We’re projecting that the tariff will cost into the billions of dollars in lost investments,” McKay told SolarWakeup. “It’s no secret that the solar industry’s record rate of growth will be harmed by the tariff. We aren’t the only ones pulling back.”

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The company has been looking at projects since last year to determine whether they are still economically viable under the new tariff regime, McKay said. Then the company acted to reduce the number of marginal projects in its pipeline.

The biggest state affected was North Carolina, but there are other states that will see noticeable effects, including:

Colorado

Illinois

Massachusetts

Maryland

North Carolina

New York

Oregon

South Carolina

Texas

Virginia

“We now have some projects due to the price sensitivities around utility-scale solar that no longer have a clear path forward,” McKay said. “That means that we a substantial amount of lost investment opportunities. That’s translates into jobs that won’t be created and new tax revenue that communities will not receive.”

The news comes as Bloomberg reported earlier this week that “Republican senators from five states with big solar farms are asking the Trump administration to exempt the workhorse of industrial solar panels from tariffs imposed earlier this year.”

Exempting utility-scale solar modules from the tariffs doesn’t really solve the overall problem, which is that the duties have cost 9,800 downstream installation and other non-manufacturing jobs, as well as having thrown the industry into chaos for the past year and a half. And it bears repeating that the tariffs were imposed on the whims of two companies that, in short order, will no longer exist.

But the exemption might be a good step toward fixing this unforced error that is harming the overall U.S. economy.

More:

Low And Behold, GOP Finds Solar Tariffs To Be A Bad Idea

Solar To Surpass Wind In 18 Months, Become Fourth Largest Energy Capacity In The World

By Frank Andorka, Senior Correspondent

The sun slowly starts its global domination.

Look out, wind – solar is about to catch you.

That’s the headline from Frost & Sullivan’s recent analysis Global Power Industry Outlook, 2018, which posits that solar will surpass wind in global energy capacity starting in 2020, making it the fourth largest source of energy generation behind coal, gas and hydro. Less than a year ago, solar surpassed nuclear energy to reach fifth place.

The report says increased battery energy storage capabilities, surges in merger and acquisition activities, and disruptive energy start-ups are the primary reasons the renewable energy sector is seeing this surge – and solar has, so far, been the primary beneficiary of this energy capacity expansion.

The report also predicts that $2.2 trillion will be invested in new energy capacity through 2021, including more than $600 billion in the solar sector alone.

“To navigate through current trends and challenges, organizations must start embracing business models that enhance operational and process efficiency while reducing costs,” said said Vasanth Krishnan, Energy & Environment Analyst at Frost & Sullivan. “Adopting disruptive digital solutions that focus on consumer needs will bring the organization closer to technological and efficiency transformation.”

The report also highlights several other global energy sector trends, including:

The 3D’s of Power – Decarbonization, Decentralization, Digitalization – continue to be underlying factors determining the global power market landscape;

The residential battery storage market will be the fastest growing in 2018 driven largely by the surge in the behind-the-meter residential deployments in the US, Germany, and Australia;

“Analyzing long-term scenarios and defining positioning strategies should be key focus areas for industry participants in the long term,” noted Krishnan. “Also, as the renewable and distributed energy markets mature, a large installed capacity of equipment will need to be serviced, offering attractive growth prospects within the operations and maintenance sector.”

For access to the executive summary, click here.

Deloitte Says Businesses Want To – And Are – Fighting Climate Change

By Frank Andorka, Senior Correspondent

Water wet. Pope Catholic. Businesses are trying to fight climate change.

Go figure.

According to Deloitte’s eighth annual Energy Resources Report, businesses and consumers are moving forward to create what it calls a “virtuous cycle” of sustainability, including moving to cleaner energy sources like solar. But the study also finds what instinct might tell you from watching American behavior over the past 30 years – businesses are leading the charge, and the people are following.

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The survey questioned more than 1,500 residential consumers and 600 businesses on their energy use patterns and found that “is leading many businesses to develop and deploy new tools for monitoring and reducing energy consumption, evolve their energy management policies and practices, explore expanding their use of renewable energy sources, and integrate their resource management programs more closely with their operations.”

Study authors also found 7 in 10 businesses say their customers expect them to get at least some of their energy from renewable sources, with 48% of them saying they are actively trying to do so. And even more telling was this statistic: 21% of the businesses say they are trying to green their energy consumption as a result of demands from business partners.

That’s why it’s so important to have businesses like Target and Walmart at the top of the Solar Energy Industries Association’s Solar Means Business report every year – with their extensive supply chains that extend throughout the world, decisions at the corporate level have real-world effects throughout the entire supply chain.

And that influence isn’t limited to supply chain partners. The authors write:

Residential consumers, particularly younger ones, seem increasingly keen on using clean energy sources in general, and on expanding the use of wind and solar power more specifically.

Such findings aren’t entirely a surprise to long-term solar industry observers, but it does provide some data to support those who say the clean energy revolution is only just beginning and will continue to grow for the foreseeable future.

Read the full report below.

Deloitte Resources Survey 20181261

Who’s Behind This Anti-California-Ruling Media Blitz?

By Frank Andorka, Senior Correspondent

What Happened: David Roberts, aka Dr. Vox, penned an article that essentially spent 1,000 words arguing for and against California’s “all three-story houses must have solar” ruling, only to end up with a shruggy emoji to say, “Who knows how it will go?”

Since the article itself offers little in the way of serious argument (it’s a wordy listicle), I want to focus instead on the media blitz that has produced pieces like this.

It will be interesting to see when it comes out – and it will – who is behind the slew of negative coverage of the decision.

SolarWakeup’s View: For whatever reason, the California Energy Commission’s decision to require all new three-story (or fewer) homes to have solar on them has unleashed something of an unexpected backlash, even in unexpected places.

It even showed up at the Center for American Progress panel on climate change that I wrote about earlier, when Amy Harder asked climate activist Mustafa Ali if the California ruling would be a good idea for the low-income communities with which he works (he said it depends on the structure of the law).

Leaving aside the fact it only applies to new homes, what the heck was the point of the question? Couldn’t everyone benefit from lower electricity bills?

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And see, that’s the kind of digression on which opponents of the ruling, who are currently lurking around just out of sight but who are pushing this anti-solar narrative nevertheless, want solar advocates to focus. It’s like a blitz in the NFL: the goal is to overwhelm the blocking scheme with so many pass rushers that the one person they should be focused on gets through to sack the quarterback.

I believe the current anti-solar blitz, focusing on the California ruling, is designed to distract from how revolutionary and visionary the idea is and how it could become more prevalent across the country if the California ruling succeeds (which it will) in lowering carbon emissions and making life healthier for the state’s citizens.

So let’s not get distracted, OK, Dr. Vox? I know you just want to help, but allowing yourself to be distracted by the big shiny bauble the anti-solar crowd is waving in your face is NOT helpful.

More:

California will require solar panels on all new homes. That’s not necessarily a good thing. (Editor’s note: It’s almost UNIVERSALLY a good thing.)

Panel Says We Will Win The Climate Change Battle (Their Mouths To Universe’s Ears)