This is your SolarWakeup for March 16th, 2018

Solar Messaging. This morning, most media outlets released their coverage of the 2017 solar market data which showed headlines of a 30% overall drop and drop in residential solar sector. So if your editor wants an Elon Musk failed or Trump kills solar headline, you could have written it with that focus. Coverage from Axios and CNBC, which don’t tend to have an anti-solar tweak didn’t come out with the most positive headlines. At SolarWakeup, I see what gets clicks and bad headlines are adored by readers so that’s part of the story but the other part of it was the messaging. 2016 was a banner year for political reasons and 2017 had 201 headwinds throughout the year. You’d have to get to the bottom of the press release to see that so while no-one in solar was surprised when I spoke with them, the non-solar worker reading mainstream headlines would think this space is struggling.

Scary Grid Stuff. Utility execs stay awake at night thinking about cyber attacks against the grid. Now the Trump administration is making he known unknown visible to the masses. Personally I don’t know what to do with the information except add it to the bullets on the slide of why the energy system needs more distributed generation and flexibility.

Trade And Manufacturing. China hawk Peter Navarro is telling Wall Street to ‘just relax’ regarding the tariffs. Saying that our trade deficits need to be stood up against. I have a question for Navarro. What would you say to the American worker that takes raw aluminum that is imported to the US and makes patented US manufactured solar racking products? Just relax? What do you say to the banker, lawyer and solar developer that just dropped a 20MW deal in Texas because of a solar module tariff? Just relax? Now that 201 manufacturing hype is coming back to reality, the cheerleaders of ‘new manufacturing’ are nowhere to be found because they are wrong, as wrong as most of them have been over the years on most things solar.

Weekend, Next Week. For the readers that joined our March Madness bracket, most of you are rooting big for UVA. For the two of you that picked Arizona to win it all, you will not be writing a SolarWakeup paragraph this year. Next week we will all get together with our friends from Vote Solar. It’s not too late for you to join me in San Francisco and lots of your solar friends. Reminder, if you spend $1,000 or more on tickets you get a space in this opening text. Just send me the receipt.

WAKEUP20. In 4 weeks, many of you will be with me as we bring SolarWakeup Live! to San Francisco to hear from leaders in venture capital, policy and CCA energy procurement. I’d love for your to join me as well, take 20% off an already very cheap ticket.

Opinion

Have a great day!

Yann