Join Me This Morning. The solar market is moving quickly and the survey results will be released on a call about the market this morning. Join us, you can register for the webinar here. It’s at 10am EST.
Margin Stacking. I remember 30 years ago going to the travel agent with my father. We sat in a mall, where the nice agent showed us a green screen of flight options, in this case flying PanAm from Hamburg Germany to Florida. There was no transparency in the pricing or competitive options to the PanAm flight and therefore we rarely took the plane. Today, you and I can go on an app and see hundreds of variations of flights by city, date, time or connections before deciding to fly. COVID aside, airlines and travelers won when transparency was created. It also made every level of margin become more transparent, hence the fees for luggage, exit row seats and faster boarding. You get what you pay for. Solar in 2020 lacks that transparency for most market participants at this point and that’s something we should all think about fixing. It is what I am thinking about constantly now as I ponder what’s next, quality and reputation should be the leading drivers of success in solar, not unknown unknowns like margin stacking. More to come.
Measure From 12,000 Feet. In this week’s SolarWakeup podcast I talk with Rob Newman, the CEO of Nearmaps. Nearmap flies planes all over the world including your house, three times per year. These planes fly between 12 and 18 thousand feet and measure your roof with accuracy of a couple of inches. For solar, it enables installers to sell projects with accurate designs without ever stepping on the roof until install day.
Will SPI Happen? While early spring events like GTM’s Summit had to move to the fall and Midwest Solar Expo has gone virtual, no word on SPI in September. SPI is a crucial source of funding for SEIA and SEPA but this year’s event is in California where distancing protocols will be stricter than other States. SPI’s website still appears all systems go but the survey respondents, by a margin of 74%, said they would not be comfortable attending.
- GreenBiz: Companies push Congress to promote climate action. Is anyone listening?
- Reuters: U.S. solar industry sheds five years of job growth amid the coronavirus
- Axios: Tesla to decide between Austin and Tulsa for next U.S. factory
- Greentech Media: Quinbrook Infrastructure Partners Launches New Solar Development Company
- PV-Tech: Norway’s fund giant blacklists RWE and puts Enel on notice over coal concerns
- Utility Dive: Shrinking fossil fuel demand could hit California’s cap-and-trade auction, experts say
- New York Times: PG&E Says Wildfire Victims Back Settlement in Bankruptcy
- Bloomberg: Next U.S. Solar Fight May Put State Subsidies in Federal Hands
Opinion
Best, Yann