This is a big week in SolarWakeup, our first full day SolarWakeup Live! event in Chicago is on Thursday. I’m excited about the solar market these days and even though there are challenges, we have markets like Illinois to look forward to. I’d love to see you there, get your ticket at solarwakeuplive.com
Another Tariff. Solar Silence. On Friday the Trump White House added another layer of costs on solar by imposing 25% tariffs on cells and modules from China. The impact is minimal on the face of it because AD/CVD already caused much of the supply chain to be out of China. This reality is more complicated after the 201 tariffs and several manufacturers planning on building module plants in the US. Those plants are now in jeopardy because they essentially lost access to the Chinese supply chain of cells. My question, as usual, is who wanted solar on the list of tariffs given that we were just on the tariff list? Where was the industry’s lobbying efforts and quite frankly it’s time to change our lobbyists because I see this as 0 for 4 in the tariff fights. The silence is deafening indeed.
IPP Deals Show New Grid Resilience. Tomorrow, a lot more on this topic but let me give you a highlight. The past decade has been about intermittent solar being added to the grid. First, there isn’t enough solar to matter. Second, we have to limit the amount of solar and charge them for the grid services. Third, we have stop letter solar connect because the caps have been hit. Now we are going to see a fundamental shift of solar being the solution to grid services with energy storage. I have said this publicly, we are less than a decade away from every solar installation having energy storage on it and even retrofitting most of the solar plants that are already operating.
Energy Subsidies. Solar will stop fighting for its subsidies when the energy sector and monopolies give up their subsidies which are much bigger and more effective than solar’s.
Solar Fires, A Big Story? My question to you. Are these stories coverage of events or worthy of a discussion?
PACE In PA. Frank has a great story about one of my favorite markets within solar, PACE. PACE was one of the fastest growing legislative movements in the 2010 era and since then has tried to find its place. I think we are really close to that reality coming true because PACE is now pricing below the cost of debt with longer terms for many solar projects. It also has the potential to open up the C&I markets by removing the credit barrier for DG PPAs. Great for the PA solar market to get this moving in the right direction. Make sure to click on the CleanFund link below to get some idea on the pricing available.
- SolarWakeup: Report – New Tariffs Should Have Only A Minimal Effect On Solar (With One Notable Exception)
- Utility Dive: As distributed solar expands, can utility system planning keep up?
- Economist: Can the solar industry survive without subsidies?
- Boston Globe: Solar panels catch fire at Burlington school
- SolarWakeup: Pennsylvania Governor Sets Aggressive PACE For Clean Energy Growth In The Keystone State
- Fox Business: Why Trump’s solar panel tariff is hurting this US company
- GreenBiz: Lessons from Hawaii’s clean energy transformation for transportation
- OZY: China Sends Solar Shivers With Subsidy Cuts
Opinion
Have a great day!
Yann