This is your SolarWakeup for December 18th, 2020

A Message On Policy. If you happened to participate in yesterday’s Roth call you heard me say this live. Companies in solar need to step up and so should everyone reading this. Over the past 15 years years we have transitioned solar from an industry that needs support to prove a point to being the fastest growing energy source with margins throughout the ecosystem. I read almost every form 4, and I don’t mean to pick on executives at public companies, but we are doing much better than ever before. The problem is most companies and executives view policy as charity, not a regulatory necessity or business development. Companies and executives alike should be setting aside 1% of their revenue to invest in policy efforts. That means if your revenues are $200million, you should be spending $2million on policy through staffing, lobbying, trade groups and political contributions. Let’s say that last year the revenues in US solar was $30billion, imagine how powerful solar would be if we spent $300million industry wide on policy efforts and therefore what would you say your salary, equity and net worth growth would be next year. Do you think we would be fighting for a 1 or 2 year ITC extension? Would SEIA and CALSSA have to struggle to find revenues because COVID killed in person events that raise a majority of the small budgets that operate our trade representatives? 1% is the number. I hope that every CEO and executive team at least spend time in a meeting talking about what this would look like on their P&L and what regulations would make that investment worth it and what policies could die if they don’t do it. Here’s my contribution to you, if you’re open to doing this and don’t know how to deploy that money, I will give you unbiased advice on how I would deploy if I were in your shoes.

And The Freeloaders. There is a list of companies in my mind and other policy pros. These companies are growing, profitable and lack participation at any level. You’d be shocked if I named names, which I won’t, of companies that aren’t members at state SEIA chapters or any trade group at all. They also tend to ignore the phone call that asks for their participation in fundraising drives and they definitely don’t have policy staff. If the solar industry has increased your net worth to over $10million, do me a favor and look at your policy spend. SEIA’s budget shouldn’t be $20million (in a normal year) and CALSSA shouldn’t be $2million, they should be 5x that number and would be if everyone participated.

Biden’s Climate Team. Biden has named names, Congresswoman Haaland to Interior, Michael Regan to EPA and Brenda Mallory to CEQ being added to the Granholm, McCarthy and Kerry announcements that came before. These are great names and will have the ability to do good things for the planet and solar. The next level of staffing will be great to see, I assume we will see names from inside our industry fairly soon.

No Spending/COVID Deal Yet. Negotiators continue to hash out the details of the covid stimulus. It is now expected that members of Congress will vote on a deal over the weekend but no word on if extenders get included and whether solar is included if they do.

30 Years Of Solar. In this episode of SolarWakeup (or find it on spotify or Apple), the podcast, I speak with Dan Shugar. Dan is the CEO of Nextracker, one of the largest tracker company in the world, currently owned by Flex. Dan has been thinking about solar for over 30 years and our conversation weaved through many of the periods that led us to where we are today, a mainstream energy generator creating generation wealth opportunities. Conversations like this are difficult to maneuver for me because after 15 years in solar I have a lot of the background that some listeners may not know or recollect but I think this may be a great welcome to solar listen for everyone in the industry. You also get a first attempt at the 10 minute episode of SolarWakeup recap at the top, fast forward to minute 10 to get to the interview. I’d certainly appreciate it if you forward the episode along to friends and colleagues.

Solar For Clubs. My friends at Sustainable Capital Finance (SCF) have seen an uptick in interest for solar PPAs from schools, country clubs, and golf courses, as these off-takers have been impacted differently than other C&I energy consumers during the COVID-19 crisis. Golf & Country Clubs have seen increased revenue from golf and other outdoor activities, while schools would install solar while students aren’t on school grounds. In both scenarios, savings from a solar PPA are extremely attractive. Click here to learn more about how their subscription-free, proprietary software, the SCF suite, can help to speed up your PPA pricing and transaction process.

Opinion

Best, Yann