This is your SolarWakeup for August 30th, 2021

A Note To Adam. As many of you may have seen and read, Adam Browning is stepping down from his role as Executive Director at Vote Solar. Vote Solar was my first touchpoint into the world of solar policy in 2007 when the organization, as it had prior and many times after, fought for net metering and interconnection in Florida. The Sunshine State still benefits from their work in 07/08. Mind you, as I started to develop opinions about solar policy, I didn’t always agree with the organization and questioned why Vote Solar was fighting things like new natural gas plants in Michigan. I don’t think this is overstepping my relationship with Adam but one time Vote Solar agreed to a truce in Arizona where solar gained fairly little and I called Vote Solar out on it. Adam, the professional that he is, reached out and taught me an important lesson that he learned from his grandmother; “if you want ponies, go to the petting zoo.” The real world isn’t a straight line to everything you want and I still think of those ponies when I’m presented with a situation that I don’t love either result of. That’s the lesson I think about when I reflect on Adam’s 20 year leadership at Vote Solar. So thank you to Adam for your part of getting us to over 50% of the population with 100% clean energy targets and defending solar across the Country, you can be proud of the work you did and I can’t wait to see what’s next, somehow I doubt it involves a petting zoo!

The Senate Budget. The legislative bodies are working on the budget and we’re back to ‘all eyes on Synema and Manchin’ to see what they are going to do with the budget. They know that this will likely cause the bipartisan infrastructure bill to fold if the budget doesn’t satisfy the progressives in the House. Synema has said that she won’t support the $3.5trillion price tag and more will likely not support the pay fors and tax increases that some have proposed.

Look At Gas Prices. Natural gas prices are up over $4/mmBTU, blowing up every fuel cost projection in rate based natural gas power plants. So I remind you once again, rate based natural gas plants are the most subsidized power plants in the entire energy market today. 

FERC Changes. Biden is about to have a FERC commission that has a majority coming from the democratic party, prioritization on issues related to climate and resilience but what dockets make it to the top?

Opinion

Best, Yann