2020 Solar Market. The past 10 weeks has put me on an emotional roller coaster as it pertains to the solar market. It was March 17th when shelter in place was announced in California and I texted an installer, next week you will have zero sales, what are you going to do? That was when I posted the first survey to see how many weeks solar would be at zero sales. Thankfully we never got to zero and now some installers are back above the sales numbers from early March. Non-residential installers also showed that this would be a blip and the survey for May will show the start of a split in solar. Those that are rebounding and those that couldn’t handle it. I’ll be covering the May results on a call tomorrow at 10am EST. RSVP for that call here free of charge.
May Survey. Did you fill out your response for May? Today is the last day. You can see the full results of previous surveys here
Not All Rebounds Are Same. PetersenDean has filed for bankruptcy protection according to PV-Magazine reporting and is only quoting roofing projects right now. It appears that the company will blame COVID for the woes but I expect more about this story to come out. There are many installers in far less profitable markets that are rebounding nicely and adapting to the virtual environment.
Get The Scale. First it was the cost of solar, then it was a lack of scale. Now pension funds not only see the returns they want, they also see the massive scale that makes deploying real dollars feasible including with great currency diversification for truly big funds. Danish fund, CIP, is targeting $15billion in investments.
What To Make Of BP? The company is writing down the value of some assets by a total of over $17billion dollars and is increasing the carbon cost for its investment planning to $100 per ton in 2030. That means that fossil projects will have to overcome significant additionality for projects that are not that far away in the world of a BP. The inverse is also true, renewable energy projects will become significantly better investments with such a carbon price included and you could see the company leveraging its development, land rights and offshore infrastructure for such projects.
Solar Plus Storage. Not for nothing but Vectren, the utility company HQed in Indiana is including 1GW of solar and storage in their IRP. I’m sure that Mike Pence will be lauding their foresight any minute now.
Presented by Adani Green Energy. Adani is a fully integrated renewables company, from solar cell and module manufacturing to ownership and operation. The company has a top global operating and contracted pipeline of over 14 GW. Adani is the recipient of the largest solar award ever of 8 GW, which includes a single site project of 2 GW – tied for the world’s largest. No one knows mega-scale projects like Adani.
- PV-Magzine: PetersenDean, a regional solar installer and roofer, seeks chapter 11 bankruptcy protection
- Reuters: UPDATE 1-Danish fund manager CIP aims for world’s largest renewable infrastructure fund
- Axios: Why BP’s revealing accounting move could be a signal for oil’s future
- PV-Tech: Indiana utility to replace coal with solar-plus-storage, Wood bags Virginia EPC deals
- New York Times: PG&E Pleads Guilty to 84 Counts of Manslaughter in Camp Fire Case
- Utility Dive: Utilities remain mute on FERC net metering petition, leave filing to face overwhelming opposition
- Bloomberg: Before the U.S. Can Have Clean Power, It Needs More Power Lines
Opinion
Best, Yann