This is your SolarWakeup for August 22nd, 2018

Solar Inverter Wars. Frank goes inside some of the behind the scenes that are causing a long-awaited product release by Huawei to be delayed. Huawei has largely avoided the public image place on ZTE by Trump but it hasn’t been able to avoid the impacts caused by tariffs. Other residential inverter companies have had to adjust their supply chain as well but the release of the Huawei line has been talked about for years at this point. It would be interesting to have transparency on the other business moves that have had to adjust due to tariffs of various nature.

Screw Solar, Go Clean Coal. Yesterday was quite the news day and dropping to the bottom of the media’s list was the fact that the administration proposed a coal policy that would kill 1,400 people. This isn’t a study by a think tank or advocacy group, this comes straight from the EPA. That’s not 1,400 total, that 1,400 per year by 2030. Over a 10 year period that’s 14,000 Americans dying for no good reason whatsoever. If we can’t make the case against this, we’re less prepared to fight than anticipated.

A Clean Energy Vision. GTM’s Julia Pyper has a great interview out with Senator Heinrich about his vision for 100% renewable energy. I won’t steal the thunder but I do want to point out that when Senator Wyden, also a democrat, was at the US ITC arguing for tariffs on behalf of SolarWorld, Senator Heinrich spoke right after to argue solar’s case. He gets the vision of our industry and I applaud him for seeking out the industry media to make his case for a vision we agree with.

Going Inside Tesla. I have a newfound respect for folks that operate manufacturing plants and I love to get an inside look at how others are doing it. Obviously, Elon is a particular level of special, love him or hate him, (I’m a fan) and you have to respect that ability to roll out products that wow the consumer. I’m sure this will drive the typical love/hate emails that usually accompany Tesla comments from me, but put it aside and enjoy this interview. It’s pretty cool.

Opinion

Have a great day!

Yann