Trump Still Anti-Solar. On Saturday, the White House released a proclamation signed by Trump (now we know what he signed at Walter Reed) pushing for the bifacial tariff exemption to be eliminated. He also called for the 201 tariff drop to not go to 15% but 18% instead. Taxing Americans access to solar continues to be his priority.
OakTree Shaking IPO Foliage. With Array Technologies about to have a monster IPO, it won’t be long before the best exhibitor at solar conferences, Shoals, follows suit. Take it from me, widgets have great margins. From racking to wire accessories, this part of the BOS ecosystem is ripe for investors.
Vehicle To Grid Auf Deutsch. In a German article, follow the twitter thread here to read the original article, the head of Volkswagen’s charging division talks about electrification and vehicle to grid capabilities in the future. In a DC coupled architecture, you could see a cable from the car to the stationary energy storage already installed at the home.
The Subsidy Of Crappy Deals. In a new analysis, MISO shows that uneconomic coal power plants ‘lost’ over $400million in a 4 year window. Lost is a big word, because it’s really a subsidy. Add this to the long list of subsidies that generators, utilities and incumbents have received when solar plus storage is already economically viable.
Laudato Si, Iterum. You may recall the Pope’s Laudato Si from several years ago. The Pope is once again calling for action on climate change. You could see Joe Biden, a practicing catholic, echo those words to make the case on this basis as well.
The Michigan Farmer. Last week’s news that Biden was releasing a climate change ad in Michigan is out. This has the potential to get traction in other states, like Iowa and North Carolina for example.
Energy Storage Gold. Check out these ERCOT market prices from this weekend, energy storage operators are paying their bills.
Bad Solar TikTok Dance. Now there is a solar TikTok. In this video, a man escapes a collapsing roof and you should watch til the end to discover the likely issue here.
Get The Power. Later this year, the residential solar market is going to get some major savings with most of their balance of systems when the shift to higher power solar modules really gets going. With power density going up more than 10%, those savings will trickle down to mounts, rails, inverters, labor and wire and hopefully into installers’ wallets. Make sure you are getting the best modules and pricing possible by joining the SolarWakeup Buyer’s Group. You can see the pricing on our price discovery page.
- Reuters: Trump backs revoking tariff exemption for some solar panel imports
- PV-Magazine: Shoals, solar balance-of-system player, had a strong 2020 and sees an even stronger 2021
- Greentech Media: The Startup Helping EVs Balance Out the Renewables That Power Them
- Utility Dive: MISO integrated utilities lost $492M from 2016-2019 via uneconomic coal dispatch: market monitor
- Cleveland.com: Here’s why Ohio lawmakers haven’t done anything about scandal-tainted House Bill 6 so far
- Axios: Pope calls on world to act with “urgency” to curb climate change
- EDF: California ramps up the speedometer on the electric vehicle future
Opinion
Best, Yann