This is your SolarWakeup for March 1st, 2020

Texas Reform Needed? When it comes to ERCOT, it’s been an educational time for many of us. In less than a year’s time, ERCOT experienced huge price spikes from a heating event, outages from a hurricane and now the freezing of an unprotected infrastructure system. It also highlights that the stress tests for the Country’s grid are not tested for today’s needs and variables. Since the start of the pandemic, we’ve shifted our consumption farther to the grid edge, added electric vehicles and adopted electrification. ERCOT, specifically, is going to figure out if the market worked as designed or if it needs to adapt given a more drastic edge case. I can’t help but think that when it comes to our energy system, we are embarking on a road trip with our tank on empty, hoping that the gauge is broken.

Yellow Electrification. This has been an obvious announcement a long time coming. My son rides on a traditional blue bird yellow school bus and I hate that it’s not electric. Predictable routes with no range anxiety, central congregation spot, low speeds and lots of stops, all of which are perfect for an electrified school bus fleet. Like in solar, EV school bus fleets are the best counterparties for 3rd party ownership of those fleets because the capital can be cheap and not encumber the school district. We may not be there on costs quite yet, but this is happening in a big way.

Keeping The Lights On. One of the pictures I got last week, regarding homes in Texas staying on with solar, came from Sunrun. Their CFO was on Bloomberg talking about the ability for DERs to keep the lights on and how the demand in Texas is currently through the roof (or on the roof) for solar plus storage. Sunrun and every other solar company in Texas are hiring thousands of workers to keep up with demand because at a certain point, consumers realize that peace of mind and saving money are actually in alignment. High rises in cities sway with the wind, to absorb the force pushed on itself. In areas affected by earthquakes, high rises can have dampers (spring like devices) installed to absorb the higher forces. When it comes to the grid and its resiliency, DERs and storage will create that balance.

Small Area, Big Market. DC may not be big or a State but when it comes to being a market, it’s a big one for one local solar installer. New Columbia Solar has been leading the charge there and they keep adding capital to their firepower. A great outcome for a great team. 

Opinion

Best, Yann