Big Success In Boston. Nothing caught on fire at the sold-out inaugural SolarWakeup Live! event in Boston. All four conversations dove deep in to the content, some of which I give you some highlights of below. Recorded interviews will be released over the next month.
SMART RFP Coming. I spoke with Mike Judge from DOER who led the SMART regulation process which is currently at the DPU for tariff language. We spoke about the auction process to clear the initial block of projects and how the 201 process impacts the timeline and if the process can proceed without knowing the costs of development. DOER is party to the DPU proceedings and expects to comment in some ways on the creation of the tariff process.
NEM Cap In MA. S. 1824 increases the net metering cap in MA by 5% and is sponsored by Senator Boncore who joined us yesterday. While the bill is progressing through the Senate, current in the TUE committee, there is no timeline on reporting it out of committee or hearing it on the Senate floor. Most importantly, there was little understanding of how the House would view the bill. Result? Don’t expect quick work on the cap increase.
ITC Vote. The trade commission held a vote yesterday to recommend some tariffs on imported modules. For those keeping count that would be the third tariff. They are lower than what Suniva and SolarWorld asked for and analysts from Roth Capital view the resulting ASP in the low 40cent per watt. That being said, this doesn’t mean anything until the President decides what he wants to do about it. This is still a tax on American consumers but probably livable for the US solar market. Keep up the pressure and make sure to attend the USTR hearing on the 6th in DC if you can.
FERC Trouble. Jon Wellinghoff spent 8 years on the FERC board including 4 as the Chairman. He has spent his career on policy and I knew that is the voice I wanted to hear about the DOE NOPR. From now on, let’s call the NOPR what it is – a subsidy for coal plants in what should be open and free markets. There seems to be additional trouble brewing at FERC, which Jon describes at the end of the episode. Listen here.
DC Dec 6th. Join us in DC, already 50% sold out so make sure to get your tickets soon and get one for a friend. If you are interested in sponsoring, email me, you get on the website, newsletter and conference.
Sponsor Thank You! Please support our Live! Boston sponsors. EnterSolar is hiring. True Green Capital is buying projects. DGEP Management is investing in development. If you want a personal intro, let me know.
- SolarWakeup: Impact of DOE’s NOPR and Next Steps At FERC with Former Chairman Jon Wellinghoff
- Utility Dive: ITC proposes 3 solar trade case remedies with tariffs, quotas and capped imports
- Solar Power Portal: 100MW installed, but this is just the beginning for large-scale battery energy storage
- PV-Tech: Organic Valley commits to 100% renewables by 2019, developing 29MW of PV in Wisconsin
- Renewable Energy World: What Happens When Solar Installers Get Frustrated with Loan Options?
- Greentech Media: Flexibility, Not Resilience, Is the Key to Wholesale Electricity Market Reform
- Washington Post: The Energy 202 – Clean energy investment needs to triple to halt catastrophic warming
- Bloomberg: Solar Industry Sighs in Relief at Small Import Tariff Proposals
Opinion
Have a great day!
Yann