Have a great weekend, I will be back in touch on Monday from DC where I will be interviewing Tom Matzzie from CleanChoice at Solar Focus Conference.
No, Don’t Say That. The highest hopes I had for Rick Perry was that he’d want to turn the entire country into an ERCOT market. Now he’s just an embarrassment considering his post is normally filled with some of the smartest people in the world. Let’s focus on the future where some of solar’s biggest innovators are electrifying developing Countries in amazing ways – in ways that central power plants could never do it.
Future of Peakers. Probably doesn’t include much gas. If you don’t get a capacity contract the cost of gas transmission/supply paired with the lack of dispatching will make your plant less than profitable. Starting with California, market spreads between retail and wholesale are ridiculous right now and pricing signals are showing that markets want to move away from gas peakers. The future looks towards storage especially when signals get into the microsecond level. How long before every solar plant has energy storage installed on it?
Cost Of Money and Jobs. Tariffs will cost jobs and fail to create a market benefit. How many jobs are we willing to pay to create nothing here? Let’s highlight the jobs that are located here that are working abroad. If you are a lawyer, investor, developer that is involved in foreign projects, let me know – we need to highlight this.
Trade War. South Korea is threatening a WTO case in response to US tariffs. What will China do? Silicon is a good case study of how jobs are lost when politicians try to play market development.
Ratebase Victory. The hurricane that caused me to lose two weeks of my life, caused many grey hairs and cost me thousands is about to cost me more in the form of higher electric bills. As the hurricane came through and snapped my power pole in half, utilities in Florida were calling the hurricane, Saint Irma. Every wire that fell, every truck that had to be called in – meant more cost that needed to be ratebased and repaid by the consumers (don’t forget to add the return on that ratebase).
Tax Reforms. Solar will be fine, if you want to worry, worry about the impact on depreciation value with a lower corporate tax rate. Building a pipeline is more important right now, the ITC is incredibly unlikely to go away.
- Washington Post: Rick Perry said fossil fuels could help stop sexual assault. Oops.
- Greentech Media: NRG Asked to Suspend Its Controversial Gas Plant Application.What Does That Mean?
- Los Angeles Times: Protecting solar panel manufacturers doesn’t help American workers, it punishes them
- Business Insider: S.Korea may consider filing WTO complaint over U.S. solar tariffs
- CNBC: How we can win ‘the crucial third phase’ of the climate war
- Utility Dive: In new trend, utilities propose separate rate classes for solar customers without rate increase
- Reuters: Republican tax bill hits wind power, solar largely unscathed
- The Hill: Puerto Rico’s solution — microgrid system supported by solar energy
- Sun-Sentinel: Does FPL deserve all $1.3 billion for Irma? | Editorial
Opinion
Have a great day!
Yann