States Matter. A bit of a sweep across the NJ and VA elections as democrats have taken the mansion in NJ and retain it in VA. Solar is a bipartisan-supported issue at the voter level but GOP politicians have still hesitated to adopt pro-solar policies. To be fair, consumer cost has been used as an anti-solar excuse across party lines because the repercussion for not supporting solar isn’t there. But as our friends in Maryland would attest to, having a friendly vote in the Governor’s mansion goes a long way to passing legislation. Nobody wants to pass a bill against a veto threat.
280.Twitter now has a 280 character limit…
Solar Saves Lives.An important announcement yesterday about the future of energy in Puerto Rico and the rebuilding effort. In a call led by David Crane, President Bill Clinton announced the start of a coalition to raise funds and products to help bring energy to Puerto Rico and rebuild the grid in a better way. Solar Foundation is leading the operations and has set up the website solarsaveslives.org which gives you information on how to get involved.
Big Money Jobs. Cypress Creek Renewables has been making a lot of noise in the press recently. After announcing a billion dollars to be invested in Oregon, more coverage has come out on their investment in South Carolina. In coordination with the announcement, Cypress donated $25,000 to a technical college to build out the workforce. Investments and jobs are a good way to speak to policy makers.
Consumer Choice Modeling. It is interesting to see rating agencies look at the risk of consumers wanting something better as a negative corporate impact to companies like utilities. When the result of giving your customers something they want is negative to your business, your business model may be broken.
EV Tax Credit. Keep your eyes on the EV tax credit in the tax reform bill. Demand growth is the most important data point for power companies and cheaper EVs mean faster adoption which in turn creates demand growth. EEI is likely making or requesting that change on the hill right now.
- Solar Saves Lives: A Rebuilding Effort For Puerto Rico and US Virgin Islands
- Bloomberg: Moody’s Is Looking at These Risks When Rating Utility Credit
- PV-Tech: Cypress Creek to launch solar job training, invest US$1.5 billion for 2GW of PV in South Carolina
- CleanTechnica: Auto Industry Lobbyists Working To Defend US Federal EV Tax Credit
- EDF: Cuba’s electric future – Lessons learned and pathways forward
- PV-Magazine: New credit union specializing in PV and other clean energy loans opens up.
- Greentech Media: Solar Inverter Consolidation Will Continue – ‘Prices Show No Sign of Stabilizing’
- Utility Dive: ISO New England predicts declining loads due to solar, efficiency
Opinion
Have a great day!
Yann