LA Solar Wins. After some hiccups with union representatives, the Eland solar project developed by 8minute Solar is moving forward to the City Council. There was an unsigned labor agreement with the IBEW union in Kern County which has now been rectified. The giant solar plus storage project will deliver dispatchable (time to add this word to spell checks) solar energy to LADWP. Consider this the new norm!
Rivian’s Cash Haul. Building a car company is hard work and expensive too. Especially if the CEO isn’t a marketing engine that never needs to spend a dime on marketing. Rivian has raised another $350million to make the future come to reality and has been driving the prototype vehicles across the Americas. I really hope these cars hit the road and are as awesome as they appear to be!
Recapping Big News. In case you missed it, and because it’s exciting to repeat, the company I work for Quick Mount PV has been acquired. For the past 13 years, being founded in 2006, Quick Mount PV has been leading the charge to make the best mounts possible for installers and selling them through the distribution channel. Through the acquisition by Esdec, alongside the acquisitions of Ironridge and EcoFasten, we are forming the largest racking and mounting group of companies in the US. Why? As a group, each company operating independently, we can provide you better products, better service and more certainty in your supply chain. This also highlights the maturity of the marketplace, where a warranty has to mean something and the products you sell to homeowners making an investment need to match up with the promises you make.
Think Progress. I’ve been meaning to comment about the end of the Think Progress website. Having accessed it almost daily to look for interesting solar related news, I am saddened to see the site go dormant. It highlights a broader issue in solar. The collective ‘we’ need to create an ecosystem where solar publications are able to operate sustainably. If they websites/publications can’t make money then they won’t cover the space. Believe me, if I was publishing UtilityWakeup instead, I’d be doing it full time and living in waterfront accommodations. Solar websites can’t run on advertising alone and that’s why we need their side projects to flourish whether those are events, research or marketing services.
Environmental Fundraising. Axios had a great article yesterday about the upside of the Trump White House for environmental organizations. Sierra Club raised $130million in 2017, up 30%. NRDC got to $178million. Makes me wonder why the solar groups can’t get fundraising off the ground to those levels. I keep dreaming about the day where Vote Solar has a $100million budget.
Tweet of the Day. Sunrun’s Lynn Jurich had a great comeback to the Forbes list of most innovative leaders given that 99 men and 1 woman made the list.
- Los Angeles Times: Los Angeles OKs a deal for record-cheap solar power and battery storage
- Axios: Electric vehicle startup Rivian lands $350 million in new funding
- PV-Tech: Esdec claims dominant US solar mounting position with double buy
- Renewable Energy World: Xcel Energy seeks changes as ‘value of solar’ rate spike looms in Minnesota
- Business Report: Protestors take aim at upcoming PSC vote on solar ‘net-metering’
- Renew Economy: Why Australia’s biggest battery said no to an offer too good to refuse
- Greentech Media: US Storage Market Hits Speed Bump in Q2, But Residential Sector Shines
Opinion
Best, Yann