Battery Thoughts. If you were in solar in 2007, email me how much you paid for your first module and what you paid for your last module. Then think about the following, nobody else was using silicon wafers and the price dropped an enormous amount. Then think about batteries for energy storage. At best, I see energy taking 10% of the global market share of the lithium ion production. Maybe you stretch the assumptions and get to 25% but transportation will take the vast majority of it. That’s the game folks, everything is going to electrify because storage costs will become nothing. Then add the speed it brings to grid operations, elimination of intermittency in generation and reduction in grid upgrades.
Innovation. I spent the last two days at the SunShot summit here in DC. First, I am glad to see that people are targeting real and imminent problems in our space in hardware, software and business model innovation. Second, they need better access to capital and ability to network within the space. Third, these startups do a terrible job in marketing. I am the easiest media platform in the industry to reach out to, thousands of you can talk to me with the click of a reply button and it almost never happens. Our industry is a rising tide that helps everyone. Some of us will sink but I am sure of the fact that if someone does well, they reinvest into the space. SolarWakeup Ventures???
Three Pronged Solar Value. At some point we will draw the picture but the solar industry is surrounded by three major trillion dollar industries. Transportation OEMs, oil & gas majors and power IPPs are all making major moves because of the electrification of transportation.
Yieldcos. Pension funds are yieldcos for the pensioners looking for their monthly retirement check. They just happen to be private and less volatile. That’s where solar assets belong because the upside is limited for a long term solar asset owner but the downside is managed properly. Yieldcos may be gone from public markets, but they are not gone, far from it.
New Pod and SolarWakeup Update. Tomorrow…
- Utility Dive: California regulators first to allow multiple revenue streams for energy storage
- PV-Tech: Shell eyeing new build solar in the UK says reports
- Greentech Media: One Week, Three YieldCo Deals. Are More Buyouts on the Horizon?
- Think Progress: Poll reveals Americans are hitting their breaking point on the environment
- Rocky Mountain Institute: Unmoored From Facts, Will EIA Projections Become Reality?
- NPR: Westar Battling Solar Advocates On Who Should Subsidize Whom In Kansas
- CBS: Are new regulations killing Vermont’s solar success story?
- EDF: A Pathway to Clean, Affordable Energy for All
Opinion
Have a great day!
Yann