Is 2021 About Supply Chain? Solar may be growing but the bumps in the road will continue. The forced labor issue in Xinjiang was covered in the New York Times, solar glass costs are rising with limited supply and global demand is higher than ever. There is also a global boom of EVs impacting the battery supply that also provides for energy storage which we are already feeling in solar. Supply chain should be agenda item number one in your management meetings not only understanding what to buy but also expanding the time horizon on when you should purchase goods. That’s the point to consider, materials are available but it takes longer to get those goods.
A Finance Pulley. When you pull on something through a pulley, you get twice as much as you expect. That’s what is happening in the banking world. Shareholders are pressuring banks to stop financing fossil fuels, the economic indicators are showing that those assets are bad investments while renewables are desired for inevitability and ESG purposes. This means that banks not only want to stop financing old assets but expand what they are investing in new energy. Good thing is that solar, in particular, is rapidly increasing both the values that investments generate as well as total investment potential.
201 Tariff Without Plaintiffs. Sunpower is closing the Hillsboro manufacturing facility in line with their work to stop producing modules after the spinoff to Maxeon. This factory is the original SolarWorld factory that sold me modules at $4/watt but more importantly SolarWorld started the global trade war in solar. The AD/CVD, in the Obama years, caused China to retaliate with tariffs against US silicon. Then came the 201 tariff brought by Suniva and SolarWorld, both companies now long gone and remnants of their domestic manufacturing gone. What’s next? That’s my question this morning.
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- Axios: Battery shortage is a risk to burgeoning electric car era
- Solar Builder: SunPower is closing its solar panel manufacturing facility in Oregon
- Bloomberg: HSBC Shareholders Ask Bank to Cut Fossil-Fuel Lending Exposure
- Utility Dive: Federal Energy Regulatory Commission needs a reboot
- Greentech Media: New Jersey Approves PSE&G’s $778M Smart Meter Rollout
- PV-Tech: Origis Energy backed by Global Atlantic for buyout of original shareholders
- New York Times: Chinese Solar Companies Tied to Use of Forced Labor
Opinion
Best, Yann