This is your SolarWakeup for November 27th, 2017

8 Days Out. Next Wednesday, December 6th, is a big day for solar. If you aren’t going to DC, you will be missing the coordinated efforts to move solar forward. More below.

Live! DC. Tickets are about half gone but you can still get in with a 50% off black Friday special. Join me as I speak with Andrea Luecke, Amy Harder and Lidija Sekaric. We’ll have a few more speakers to announce through this week but rest assured, the conversations will be worthwhile. So, if you are not waving signs in front of the USTR hearing, you should be here. I look forward to seeing you.

USTR. The public comment period has ended and now the trade representative will hear testimony from relevant parties about the case. This appears to be less about the case law, as it was in the 201 proceedings, but about the politics and real life impacts that a tariff would cause on the industry. I know that Trump’s comments of “I want tariffs” is in the back of everyone’s mind but jobs and foreign policy is also in play. Senators are also legitimately involved in this process and nobody wants a trade war with China over solar panels, that would be a lose/lose.

Solar Happy Hour. At the top of this email you will find a link to a solar happy hour for December 6th. After attending SolarWakeup Live and the USTR hearing, join Vote Solar, SEIA and SolarWakeup as we host a happy hour. Short notice means limited space available, send me an email to get on the list.

Michigan Solar. PURPA tariffs for solar are looking good in Michigan. While limited to 2MW projects, the contracts are 20 years which are attractive for any solar investor. Will this be the next North Carolina?

Equal Time Is Flawed. You won’t find it here and it restates the same tired arguments. Matt Card from Suniva has an op-ed out and the Washington Post ran it as some sort of equal time contribution. When an argument is 99% to 1%, the 1% doesn’t get equal time but journalists feel the need to provide equal coverage. Not here, especially not when you are paid to lie.

Big Storage. Australia is leading the charge on big storage. As I’ve mentioned in the past, this is where I have been spending a large amount of my non-SolarWakeup time. The value of large storage is more than move energy from one time period to another especially when coupled with a solar farm. You can’t just co-locate storage with a solar farm, two inverters means two systems. What you want is energy storage behind the solar inverter, moving energy in and out of a single point of interconnect.

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Opinion

Have a great day!

Yann