Strand My Assets, Not My Money. RMI is out with a report that outlines the long term investment thesis for new natural gas plants. Hint: it’s not good. The report finds that like many coal plants today, gas plants don’t provide the best financial return in the future and could find themselves pushed aside for financial reasons. This isn’t just a problem for private investors, consumers that finance these plants, guarantee their financial return, are the quasi investors within regulated monopoly areas. If this sounds familiar just look at the nuclear bailouts and requested coal bailouts in the news today.
Show Me The Wires. SEIA’s report on grid modernization makes the point that RMI found above. The future of energy will value the grid of the future. This means that more distributed generation will require a grid with less wires. Anything that ends up pushing energy from a central power plant to the loads will have a value that is significantly diminished. That future may be okay for solar and wind farms that have no exposure to fuel costs and volatility but it becomes harder for more traditional fuel. Distributed generation needs to be a central part of everything we do as a solar industry and that benefits even those that are not focused on DG.
Talk To Michael. There is a statement that comes up in some conversations with politicians. It doesn’t have to be said often because lobbyists get the process for political leaders very quickly. After a pitch on an issue with some politicians, emphasis on some, the elected will say something like, “that’s very interesting, I’d like to learn more, please talk to XYZ.” In Trump’s universe, it may have been “Talk to Michael.” At the very least, this is what one nuclear power plant was thinking and maybe solar should have been told to TTM. Of course I kid, mostly, I think.
Long Term Vision, Short Term Problems. 3 months go by very quickly and changing the energy market in 3 months increments is basically impossible. If access to capital is required in order to make that change work, then having to focus on the quarterly earnings makes that difficult. So how do we merge the desire for transparency in public companies with the hope to allow companies to change the norms.
Windy City, Sunny Market. Get your ticket for SolarWakeup Live! Chicago. Part of the event will be personal matchmaking between those that have projects or pipeline with those that have capital. The one day event you will not want to miss. solarwakeuplive.com
- Rocky Mountain Institute: Michigan Is the Latest State to Embrace the Value of Clean Energy Portfolios
- SolarWakeup: We’ve Got No Wires To Hold Us Down – SEIA Completes Grid Modernization Series
- Times Free Press: Haney hires Trump lawyer to solicit foreign investment to finish Bellefonte
- GreenBiz: Moving beyond quarterly capitalism in a carbon-constrained world
- ILSR: Community Power State Scorecard Comparison — 2018 vs. 2017
- SolarWakeup: The Fight To Lower Solar Cost To Capital Continues: New Solar Finance Council Is Formed
- Barron’s: Morgan Stanley Buys $40 Million Stake in Chinese Solar Firm Daqo
- Solar Power World: Michigan lawmakers consider first statewide community solar program
Opinion
Have a great day!
Yann