Welcome to SolarWakeup Live! Chicago Day. A great crowd of SolarWakeup readers are coming together to hear about the Illinois market and some of the market players that are putting money in play here. Thanks to all for the support. Make sure to subscribe to the SolarWakeup podcast on your Apple Podcast or favorite podcast app to catch the content when we release it.
Raising The Cost Of Solar. Much ado about nothing but let’s give you the insight. Jinko was first to announce a US plant after the 201 tariffs were finalized. With a small exemption cap for cell imports, it seems reasonable that Jinko would use the lowest cost of supply chain to feed the module plant in Jacksonville. Now that the cells from China have a new tariff (in addition to 201) Jinko has had to pivot to their Malaysian supply chain. All this does is increase the cost of modules made in the US. Why would we want that? Why wouldn’t we want US made modules to be as consumer friendly as possible?
Updating MA SMART. If you are paying attention to the MA process, it appears that the fight continues to center around the same issues. When I interviewed the SMART rules experts on Halloween last year, we had the same issues and the DPU still has not finalized the SMART regulations. It also appears that a bill that cleared the Senate last week is lacking momentum in the State House. I hope MA can come together on the issue of solar in the very near future.
Global Solar Modules. Back to the topic of increasing the cost of solar. Now that SQN has basically outlined the strategy to be a cell supplier to US module manufacturing and SunPower has acquired Solarworld USA, what are we really getting for 201 tariffs. A tariff that pays into the Treasury instead of creating pools of capital to drive more US assembly. At the end of the day, with the trade war continuing, we end up with modules at twice the price than they should be. What’s going on with a settlement around the AD/CVD and potentially the 201? Can we get somewhere now that we see how the market responds?
- SolarWakeup: Jinko To Reuters – Our Jacksonville Factory Is Still On Track
- Utility Dive: In Massachusetts, capacity ownership of distributed resources could determine fate of storage
- Bloomberg: Solar Prices Nosedive After China Pullback Floods Global Market
- Reuters: In wind-down, bankrupt Suniva wants to abandon solar panels
- SolarWakeup: Nevada Ballot Initiative To Increase RPS Appears To Be Headed To Voters, Reports Say
- GreenBiz: Electric vehicle networks need to be open, smart, clean and equitable
- Think Progress: New report examines coal’s future outlook, and it isn’t pretty
- Greentech Media: Exelon, First Solar and AWEA Back a New Bipartisan Carbon Tax Advocacy Group
Opinion
Have a great day!
Yann