More Solar Clickbait. For some reason, newspapers forget that the solar industry is a business. The solar market has a global impact and global supply chain. Silicon from the US that goes to China, cells and materials that come from Georgia that go to Asia for assembly, etc. Sometimes those businesses have to adapt to market conditions and jobs are realigned, which is always unfortunate. When Sungevity files for Bankruptcy, small family owned solar installers get more market share. When China drops the cost of solar modules, more lawyers, accountants, developers are hired in the US. More importantly it means cheaper energy for consumers and more clean energy for the environment. New York Times got this headline wrong, I’ll stay subscribed though.
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Community Solar. Okay, community solar is going to be a thing. I still worry about the solar credits being under the control of regulators, and we have seen what regulators can do to change the rules of the game. That being said, we now have a community solar trade association and big companies like NRG going big with it. Maryland has spent the better part of two years working on their rules and now comes the execution. A municipal utility in Florida has signed a PPA and is selling the energy to its customers if they want to opt-in. Lots of new business segments to round this market out, would be nice to see larger pools though so we can avoid a boom-bust.
Make sure you listen to the latest episodes of EnergyWakeup. Google is now at 100% renewables, how do they do it and what is next? Sam Arons talks to SolarWakeup. We also speak with OSEIA Director about Oregon’s solarmarket.
Signals create liquidity. It’s no secret that California has a lot of solar. There are efforts to connect the CAISO with the Western States. All of this is important because the solar industry wants to move to a more flexible model, away from 20 and 25 year contracts. In order to achieve that, we need to connect our grids together in pricing and send clear pricing signals to solar and storage operators. Let traders place value of the potential value of capacity and available solar energy so that sponsors can generate revenues as if it was a coal plant.
- New York Times: When Solar Panels Became Job Killers
- PV-Magazine: Maryland pilot program would add 200 MW of community solar
- Fortune: Solar Briefly Topped 50% of California Electricity in March, Driving Rates Below Zero
- Bloomberg: Germany’s Merkel Encourages Spain, Portugal to Invest in Solar
- PV-Tech: Dominican Republic to install 361MW renewable-energy portfolio by 2018
- ILSR: Getting the Price Right for Local Wind and Solar
- Utility Dive: Hawaii rooftop solar installations tumble after net metering changes
- Engadget: Tesla reveals a sleek solar panel built for your existing roof
Opinion
Have a great day!
Yann