Help CA. One more re-up of this since it’s just all getting worse. 10,000 have lost their homes in the Camp Fire including many solar families and 631 people are still missing. For those of us in the Bay Area, we’re all feeling it given our inability to be outside with the heavy smoke in the air causing terrible air quality. Give anything you can to the cause and thank you to the $21,000 in donations we’ve seen already.
Oil Play #1. Shell is making a play into the energy savings arena through some partnerships with players in the market and is a step towards the Engie move into the space last year except Engie has been aggressively acquiring companies to execute. Customer load is the key to watch here as companies will hope to be the service provider for future needs and wants by the buildings that house employees during the day. Folks that will surely be driving and charging (discharging) electric cars for many hours.
Oil Play #2. Orsted came last week and bought an offshore wind development platform and now comes Equinor as another Scandinavian oil major acquiring part of Scatec. This is a small 10% investment for about $80million and while it may not be directly so, Scatec’s large pipeline in the US probably played a significant role in the outlook.
Minnesota Continues Upward. The MN department of commerce says that 70% renewables is within reach by 2050. A report that would likely be made more concrete and short term if they spent a few moments with the good folks at Connexus Energy. A few weeks ago, I attended the ribbon cutting of a solar plus storage plant in MN and the cooperative utility, Connexus, engaged this project because it saves their members money now, not in 2050.
PA Wants Solar, Will Get More. PA is looking to get to 10% solar by 2030, a plan by the State DEP that I applaud. Here’s the thing about PA solar. It’s going to be a huge market if the regulatory infrastructure allows it. A lot of the key attributes for a large solar market are already in place.
Going Back To Solar. Tesla is lowering their prices on their home solar installs according to their VP of energy operations who recently joined from Amazon. Tesla was still building an impress 93MW last quarter and with the gigafactory in Buffalo coming online, I see it’s time to get back into sales mode. This time, Tesla looks like it will use free media to drive interest into the stores to acquire solar for people’s homes.
- Associated Press: Sparkfund and GridPoint Partner with Shell on Subscription-Based Bundled Energy Solution
- Solar Industry: Equinor Acquires Stake In Scatec Solar
- SolarWakeup: Magnificent Minnesota – Study Says 70% Renewables By 2050 Within Reach
- Utility Dive: Pennsylvania DEP solar plan aims for 10% solar generation by 2030
- Reuters: Tesla slashes prices on home solar systems to spur sales
- SolarWakeup: Education Is The Key To Solar Support
- Renew Economy: AEMO says new wind, solar and batteries will mitigate summer blackout risks
Opinion
Have a great day!
Yann