This is your SolarWakeup for April 6th, 2021

The Digital Energy Era. Over the past few years the capital has been coming to the software side of solar and when the funding rounds reached marks over $10million, the question had to be asked, how could any software company in our industry ever be worth multiples of that. In the past year we’ve seen acquisitions and valuations that explain that rationale, companies like Geli, SofDesk and Energy Toolbase were acquired in part of entirely. This also comes when valuations of hardware companies like Shoals, Enphase and Array Technologies is well over 100x current earnings creating entire eBOS categories. The most indicative of what is yet to come is Generac acquiring Enbala because the energy transition is not as simple as coal to solar crossing the gas bridge. A renewable grid is a complicated slinky that is managed on supply and demand sides of the energy market with energy storage acting as the dampering traffic cop. Consumers of electricity will also be a dampening agent, learning to adjust behaviors, mostly without realizing it, through programs led by companies like cPower and OhmConnect. Tomorrow, I will tell you my biggest learning thus far in energy storage and why this storyline of digitization is one we all need to embrace.

A Utility Survey. UtilityDive has the results of this years utility survey with highlights on how to get more renewables. It also gives some views on how the industry should be regulated, whether states or FERC should be leading on that.

Newsom’s Time To Shine. California’s solar installers, representing tens of thousands of jobs in and out of the State are asking Governor Newsom to make his views known. More than 20,000 have signed a petition calling for strong policies that will enable distributed solar and storage to be a valuable asset to help manage the grid which continues to be hamstrung by power shutoffs, wildfires and heat related demand outages. CALSSA is on track to install 1million solar plus storage homes matching the million solar rooftop challenge from a decade ago.

The Corporate Voice. 5 years ago, SolarWakeup podcast recorded an episode with a Google energy director just before the company announced it was going 100% renewables. The 3 phase plan would seek to match renewable energy purchasing/generation with their geographic AND time shaped consumption. I.e. they wanted to have solar and wind where and when they were using it. This is a complicated challenge that has to be met by cost reduction in energy storage, market expansion and policy efforts. We have seen the ability for corporations to be a powerful voice in politics, through their PR prowess as well as their fundraising capabilities.

Claim Your Prize. Baylor has defeated Gonzaga and this year’s March Madness bracket comes to an end. “No Idea What Im Doing” has won the SolarWakeup bracket and while I share your sentiment I’d like to recognize you and invite you to write the column one day. Hit reply and announce yourself.


 Opinion

Best, Yann