This is your SolarWakeup for January 7th, 2019

Welcome To 2019. By a big margin, we are in the best solar market in history. With low costs, high demand and expanding markets around the Country, your business will thrive this year if you run your business correctly. I appreciate the time that you take to educate yourself and engage in discussion on the issues with me and others on the SolarWakeup platform. If there are topics you want covered and see in the news, please send them to yann@solarwakeup.com. You can also send tips and company updates to me. 

Recapping 2018. In case you missed it, check out my annual recap of the solar news in 2018 with some predictions dropped in. From the legislative victories in California and the 201 tariffs that kicked off the year, you’ll want to make sure you catch the news. It’s available here if you accidentally deleted it. This is a good moment to get your friends and co-workers to subscribe to the most read newsletter in solar with a single click

Stories Shaping 2019. Starting where we left off at the end of the year, Meet The Press spent an entire episode talking about climate change from a political perspective while 60 Minutes covered the Green New Deal just last night. I said it a month ago, the political dynamics and the public opinion on our industry has shifted from next big thing to why don’t we have more of it. 

Big 2019 Prediction. The ITC will be made permanent at 30% this year. Instead of stepping down from the 30% mark, it will be negotiated as a permanent rate. The politics around this work for everyone, including republicans that can take a climate victory with a mechanism they support, the wind and solar tax credits will be used as a negotiated item during some spending bill this year. While I don’t think this will happen, I hope that our trade associations will argue for the solar ITC to be eligible on active income as well for all investors. 

Storage Play For Solar. Storage will become part of solar and stand next to the inverters. Solar with 4 hours of storage in Hawaii is now in single digit cents per kWh following on the sub 5 cents per kWh on the mainland. With BNEF revising the storage cost estimates to below $200/kWh, the market will need to get ready for the future of sub $100 and $50/kWh for the battery packs in the next 10 years. 

Get Aggressive But Be Better. This is your year, regardless of the segment you focus on. Execute and get aggressive on the growth that is ahead for you. You have years of stability ahead for the business and you can think in that timeframe. Keep that future in mind when you make decisions on the type of work you provide your customers today. As an industry we have to do better for our customers that are making a 25year+ commitment to solar, whether it be the homeowner that doesn’t know about a roof leak 5 years from now or the corporation that expects a certain level of production from the solar farm they are buying energy from. 

Housekeeping. SolarWakeup has been running for 6 and a half years, longer than I ever expected and I appreciate you giving me a few weeks off. The newsletter goes out over 125,000 times per month and is a great platform to gain visibility for your business. If you provide a service to the solar industry, I guarantee that your potential customers are readers. Consider advertising here and on the SolarWakeup Live! podcast for your business so that the newsletter keeps coming. 

Opinion

Have a great day!

Yann