Grid Scam. Resiliency, as the word defines, is a misnomer for what the coal lobby is trying to message. The coal lobby is trying to say that intermittent renewables cannot be trusted to turn the lights on and gas pipelines can have congestion. As everyone in solar knows, resiliency is based on the wood pole outside of the customer’s home. If it comes down in a storm or a car hits it, the generation means nothing. And as the Atlanta airport learned this week, the cost of energy means nothing if you become detached from the generation. You should spend at least some of your time figuring out how to answer and value the microgram system for your customers.
Energy Subsidy Parity. We always hear about subsidies in energy especially solar and wind. We never hear about it for oil and gas (obviously). Now that storage is gaining momentum, it makes sense for them to get into it as well. It’s time we talk about the utopian vision of getting rid of all subsidies, monopolies and rules that favor century old incumbent entities. DC-coupled energy storage has the built in technical advantage of being behind the point of interconnect that also is better suited to take the solar ITC. Dispatchable solar sounds like it could solve all of today’s news problems.
Legislative Truth. This headline gave truth what we have known for years. There are sometimes extra costs during replacement transitions that drive down costs in the long term and in the case of energy also drive down volatility. As more renewable energy gets into the markets, pricing will absolutely reverse and stabilize the market.
Hopkins Divestment. A point of personal privilege as the Board of Trustees, which I look forward to joining someday, of Johns Hopkins University has voted to eliminate investments in the Carbon Underground 200 companies. This is the third time Hopkins has done this with the last one coming in 1991 when they voted to stop investing in tobacco.
GE’s Fossil Problem. I read the coverage about GE’s changes in energy and I recall my conversation with Daniel Hullah of GE Ventures. In the conversation he mentioned that part of the strategy is to find technologies that can have synergies with GE products to make them more competitive or profitable, i.e. prop up the core business. I could see how that evolves to replacing core revenues with new products and services.
2018 Changes. Every year I try to do something different with the SolarWakeup platform, always iterating to improve on the product. Late this year I started the Live! events and in the new year hope to improve on the analysis of the day’s news a bit, creating a way for you to find the business impact of the news. What would you like to see different? Any tips or complaints?
- Vox: Rick Perry’s fake grid crisis just got undermined by more grid experts
- Utility Dive: Groups petition Congress for stand-alone energy storage tax credits
- PV-Magazine: Australian Greens call for RET expansion as AEMC finds wholesale price increases will be reversed
- Washington Post: Shutdown starts for coal-fired plant serving US southwest
- Newsday: LIPA OKs 2018 budget, solar compensation plan and borrowing
- SolarWakeup: GE Invests In Renewable Energy To Grow Its Business With Daniel Hullah of GE Ventures
- Axios: Trump’s EPA takes first step toward new carbon rules
- Hopkins Hub: Johns Hopkins University to divest holdings in major coal producers
Opinion
Have a great day!
Yann