Black Friday means bad news for utilities. As I walked into Lowe’s this weekend, I passed a pallet of black Fridayspecials. In this case it was 60watt equivalent LED lightbulbs. I started buying them when they were about $10 a piece as an early adopter but this sale was selling them for $0.89 each. 9watt bulbs that retrofit into standard settings for $0.89. 85% savings on your lighting. You can’t overstate how big of a deal this is for the load profiles for utilities. Electricity sales were down in 2015 by 1%, I wouldn’t be surprised if 2016 was even lower.
NRG quietly adding big MW. NRG has closed its transaction with Sunedison and adds 1.5GW of operating and development assets to its portfolio. The costs are also attractive, NRG is only paying $0.122/watt AC over the entire portfolio.
Solar freakin roads. The solar industry had a meltdown when the first solar roadways video went viral. This year it solar roadways will have been installed in 4 continents including the State of Georgia. Payback is terrible, use case is circumspect but I would love to have a solar driveway.
Data signaling trouble ahead? Trina, which is in the crucial weeks ahead of a go-private vote, showed signs of a slowdown in China from their Q3 results. We also had some less than desired interconnection numbers from California in the fall. Aside from a global manufacturing oversupply, what other impacts can these slowdowns foreshadow and how will the larger entities react?
- Renew Economy: How energy efficiency will reshape power markets
- PV-Magazine: NRG closes on 1.5 GW-AC of SunEdison wind, solar assets
- Bloomberg: Solar-Panel Roads to Be Built on Four Continents Next Year
- Recharge News: Trina Solar misses guidance as China demand slump bites
- New York Times: How Can Latin America Move to Low-Carbon Energy?
- NRDC: Connecticut Clean Energy Law on Strong Legal Ground
- Think Progress: How to talk to your climate denier uncle this Thanksgiving
- CNBC: Trump may not snuff out renewable energy industry despite his doubts on climate change
Opinion
Have a great day!
Yann