Hurricane Irma. Not going to lie, the images I am getting sent to me are bad. Videos from Miami and Keys are absolutely terrifying and my neighborhood may be without power for several weeks. Power poles are snapped in half and we are far from a priority grid. I’ve been in Atlanta for a few days and will remain here until it is safe to head home. As you enjoy SPI, I hope you remember that our mission is to be successful financially but also that our industry’s success means that we change the way we generate energy so we can turn back the clocks on climate change. Anything short of shutting down coal plants tomorrow is a scientific and intellectual failure. The transition to a renewable future needs to be fast tracked because 2 storms have tormented the southeast, wild fires the west and Hurricane Jose has its eyes set on the northeast.
The Real Energy Storage Story. I was coming to SPI to speak with many of you about the work I have spent a lot of time on for the past several months and will continue to. Solar is a generating asset that creates energy that must go somewhere and why we need those upfront PPAs to finance the assets. Going forward, every solar asset will have storage attached to it even if not installed right away. This includes assets already operating. Storage needs to be installed as a DC coupled asset to make the solar asset more valuable. It is more complex and storage companies don’t understand how solar financing works. That is why I am spending time educating and developing these DC coupled energy storage projects because we must turn solar into a smarter generator. A lot more to come on this but if DC coupling is of interest to you, reach out.
Solar In A Trump Era. I was scheduled to speak this morning about how to communicate solar in this political era. With the tariff language going to Axios again, I would have expected much of our conversation to be about that. I was looking forward to sharing my ideas on how we become more of an industry that speaks to our customers and turning them into our advocates. We market too much to ourselves that we forget the hundred million plus Americans that support us. More stories about oil workers and coal miners that go to work in solar and less about the newest solar cell.
- Think Progress: Florida electric utility prepares residents for worst-case scenario from Irma
- Utility Dive: Behind-the-meter storage has record quarter, GTM-ESA report says
- Axios: Trump likely to issue solar tariffs
- PV-Magazine: Solar jobs – Progress and challenges in diversity
- Renewable Energy World: Driven, Collaborative, Curious — Who Is the New Generation of Solar Talent?
- Bloomberg: Energy Regulator Nominees Back Technology-Neutral Stance
- CleanTechnica: India Mulls Penalty For Refusal To Sign Solar PPAs
- Las Vegas Review Journal: Executive of bankrupt Las Vegas solar company charged with theft
Opinion
Have a great day!
Yann