Decision On Fate Of $1 Billion DTE Natural Gas Plant Looms

By Frank Andorka, Senior Correspondent

What Happened:The clock is ticking on the future of DTE Energy’s $1 billion natural gas boondoggle, with a decision expected by Friday.

Links on the Michigan Public Service Commission website to rebuttal testimony over the next three days are broken, so the public doesn’t have access to them.

Solar advocates across the country are watching what happens in Michigan to see if the aggressive tactics will succeed in stopping the plant.

Proposed natural gas plants are increasingly being denied in various states as unnecessary, particularly in solar-friendly states like California and Arizona. But the DTE Energy plant would be the first serious test of the idea outside of those states.

Is the image of the sun setting on a utility pole too heavy handed? I worry it’s a little heavy handed.

SolarWakeup’s View: In what has become a battle between the forces of a dominant utility and the solar industry, the fate of DTE Energy’s proposed $1 billion natural gas plant could be decided as late as Friday. And don’t think for a second solar advocates around the country aren’t hanging on this decision like a cliffhanger on the season’s finale of This Is Us.

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After all, the Michigan solar industry needs a win after watching net metering destroyed last Wednesday by the Michigan Public Service Commission (MPSC), replaced by an inflow/outflow system designed to penalize solar users and remove the traditional one-to-one net metering program and leaving solar consumers open to the tender mercies of a fee concocted by the utilities.

In addition, the MPSC would have rubberstamped the plant nearly a year ago if they could have. The only reason construction hasn’t already started is the overwhelming opposition raised by the solar industry and rallied by groups like Vote Solar (who has intervened in a non-solar case for the first time) and Power Up Michigan.

That last note is important: It’s one thing to oppose rate changes and other policy decisions in support of solar. It’s quite another to raise objections to utilities using other forms of energy instead. If solar can get a victory in Michigan, expect other state solar advocacy groups to follow suit.

This article was edited at 4:18 pm on 4/24/2018 to correct that Michigan’s disastrous net metering dismantling happened on Wednesday, not Friday as the article originally stated.

This article was edited at 9:29 am on 4/25/2018 to reflect the rubberstamping was more an aspiration than a reality, given that the MPSC had to wait a year before approving the plant. To reiterate, the deadline for approval is Friday.

More:

Coalition Delivers 10,000 Michigander Letters Calling on DTE to Drop Its Gas Plan and Choose Clean Energy (Vote Solar)

Power Up Michigan

Michigan Public Service Commission

Source: As Parent Company Struggles, Schletter Eyes Closing U.S. Operations

By Frank Andorka, Senior Correspondent

What Happened:Sources close to the situation have told SolarWakeup that Schletter, the German solar racking company going through insolvency (what bankruptcy is called in Germany) at home, is close to closing its U.S. operations.

Calls to company’s main number and to the marketing manager go directly to a generic voicemail.

Calls to the office and cell phones of the company’s vice president of sales reach recordings saying they have been disconnected.

SolarWakeup’s View: Though there has been no official announcement, multiple sources close to troubled racking company Schletter say the U.S. subsidiary has closed its doors. Calls to U.S. headquarters’ main number and to the marketing manager go directly to generic voicemail, and calls to the office and cell phones of the company’s vice president of sales reach recordings saying they have been disconnected.

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A Google search for the company turns up the follow question being asked of the company and one reply by someone who describes themselves as a former employee:

It should be noted that with no WARN Act notices have been filed by the company.

The Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act of 1988 (the “WARN Act”) is a U.S. labor law which protects employees, their families, and communities by requiring most employers with 100 or more employees to provide 60 calendar-day advance notification of plant closings and mass layoffs of employees, as defined in the Act.

Schletter’s Germany parent company filed for bankruptcy in March.

Schletter US may well be another casualty in the needless and mindless trade war the Trump Administration had declared on the world, starting with his announcement of tariffs on solar modules in January and followed by tariffs on steel and aluminum, all of which would have had deleterious effects on Schletter’s main business.

The racking-and-mounting segment of the U.S. solar industry, of which Schletter USA was a part, spoke out as a group forcefully and often against the trade complaint brought by bankrupt solar module manufacturer Suniva and later joined by SolarWorld in an attempt to jack up their valuation in preparation for sale.

Last week, SunPower announced it had purchased SolarWorld’s assets, and Suniva’s main creditor SQN Capital Management announced it was selling off all the company’s manufacturing equipment. So neither of the two combatants of the idiotic tariff battle are likely to exist in six months.

But the effects of their ridiculous battle will be felt long into the future and, by all accounts, have claimed the employees of racking giant Schletter.

SolarWakeup will continue to monitor this situation and update the story as necessary.

More:

We’re Happy For SolarWorld Employees – But That’s It

Suniva Being Sold For Parts (Literally), Just Like We Said

Could Decade-Old Florida Report Finally Be Relevant? Let’s Hope So

By Frank Andorka, Senior Correspondent

What Happened:After languishing for a decade in relative obscurity, it might finally be time to dust off a Navigant Consulting report on the solar capacity of Florida, now that the Public Service Commission (FPSC) has made third-party leasing a reality.

The Florida report, prepared for the FPSC in 2008, reported that the state’s potential solar production could reach nearly 56 GWh annually by 2020.

While the goals of the Florida report are impossible to reach in the original timeframe, the mind boggles at how quickly Florida could transform itself into one of the leading solar states.

SolarWakeup’s View: Well, 2020 is no longer a realistic goal, but the Florida report created for the state’s Public Service Commission gives a tantalizing glimpse into what the future of the solar industry could be.

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At the request of FPSC, Navigant Consulting prepared a report concerning the amount of power the sun could produce for the Sunshine State, and the short answer was that it could potentially provide a lot – 56 GWh, in fact. The report also found that, had investor-owned utilities started investing in solar heavily 10 years ago, they could be providing 23% of their electricity generation from renewalbe (a goal Florida Power & Light seems to trying to make in three years ever since it lost its battle to scotch third-party solar development in 2016 – but I digress).

Florida, thanks to the outsized influence of its electric utilities, has struggled to reach its full solar potential in the past. According to the Solar Energy Industries Association’s latest data, there is currently only 1.4 GW of solar capacity there.

But last week’s decision to legalize third-party solar leasing, Navigant Consulting’s Florida report has suddenly become relevant. It will be interesting to see how quickly it rises to its well-deserved status as the real sunshine state.

More:

Florida Public Service Commission OKs Sunrun’s Petition – So It’s Full Speed Ahead

Sunrun Could Start Operating In Florida In Earnest Within A Month

Bonus:

The full 311-page report:

FL_Final_Report_2008_12_29

Bipartisan Tariff Repeal Bill Introduced In Congress – Any Chance It Passes?

By Frank Andorka, Senior Correspondent

What Happened:Five Congresspeople – two Democrats and three Republicans – have sponsored the Protecting American Solar Jobs Act (HR 5571).

If the bill passed, all duties and tariffs revert to previous rates and allow companies that imported any affected solar products under this new tariff to receive retroactive reimbursement.

Under the current leadership in the House of Representatives, it’s unlikely the bill will even make it out of committee – but that doesn’t mean the willingness to fight the noxious tariffs is insignificant.

SolarWakeup’s View: Showing an unusual level of bipartisanship, five Congressman have introduced a bill that would repeal the current solar tariffs and reimburse companies that have been charged tariffs since their February implementation.

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Godspeed, Representatives Jared Huffman (D-CA), Jacky Rosen (D-NV), Mark Sanford (R-SC), Ralph Norman (R-SC) and Steve Knight (R-CA).

The Protecting American Solar Jobs Act (HR 5571) would enact tariff repeal for the duties imposed in February by President Donald J. Trump on all imported solar modules, starting at 30% this year and gradually decreasing over the next four until they would be eliminated entirely.

Just discussing the tariffs for nine months last year created enough uncertainty in the market to cost the U.S. solar industry 9,800 jobs, and most estimates project overall job losses for the four years to be in the neighborhood of 23,000 total. So the solar industry should be doing backflips that this bipartisan effort is coming forth in a House of Representatives that has shown little ability to agree on anything else.

In my opinion, this bill has little chance of even getting out of committee, let alone being allowed on the floor by outgoing Speaker of the House Paul Ryan, whose willingness to stand up for American workers and against powerful lobbying groups has been, well, let’s just say it’s been proven a bit lacking in recent years.

Still, what a great rallying cry this bill could be for an industry that needs unity now more than ever before. I’d urge all of you to reach out to your Representatives and demand they support this bipartisan tariff repeal. And when you’re done making those calls, pick up the phone and demand your Senator sponsor a companion tariff repeal bill in their body of Congress.

To paraphrase Emiliano Zapata Salazar, the hero of the Mexican Revolution, it’s better to stand up and fight than die in the shadows. It’s time to take to the battlements and fight for our industry. Start making the calls today.

(It’s worth noting that two of the representatives sponsoring the bill are from South Carolina, where the legislature just snatched solar’s defeat from the jaws of its victory. I wonder if either of them will perhaps mention to their state-level counterparts that the solar revolution is happening whether they like it or not – and perhaps they should get on board or get out of the way.)

More:

Rep. Huffman Introduces Bipartisan Bill to Repeal the Trump Administration’s Harmful Solar Tariffs

Utility Monopolies Screw SC Solar After Sneaky Shift On Bill

South Carolina Sends Solar Soaring With Cap Removal

Bonus:

The times, they are a changin’