This is your SolarWakeup for October 4th, 2021

Biden Gets Involved. The President went to Congress last week and linked the two infrastructure bills, the bipartisan bill and the budget reconciliation. Pelosi couldn’t bring the bipartisan bill to the floor last week and has set a Halloween deadline to get things done even though there is a 2-week recess coming up. The question now comes down to price tag on the social safety net bill, which is what most of you are keen to see because the 10 year ITC extension for solar at 30%, ITC for standalone storage and direct pay for small solar is expected to be packaged in that bill. The showdown is between the House Progressive Caucus and Senators Sinema and Manchin who are not ready to sign on to the $3.5trillion ask in the House. To put it into context, this is a 10 year spending number and Congress passed a defense authorization over $7trillion last week.
Tesla Delivers And Elon Forecasts. Tesla delivered over 240k new cars last quarter, mostly their model 3 and Y version which have a more than 6 month delivery wait currently. This is not a new statement from Elon, but he reiterated that the continued shift to electric transportation will require a doubling of global electricity generation.

The Global Energy Crisis. You’re starting to hear it, the fuel shortage in Europe for oil and gas causing lines at gas stations and price increases for electricity, the rationing of electricity in China causing factories to lower production forecasts and then the gas price spikes in the US. It’s a global energy crisis and don’t look now but most utilities are upside down on their fuel forecasts for low cost natural gas power plants that consumers will have to pick up the extra costs for. A hard winter in the northeast could be a financial disaster with fuel futures showing much higher costs than previous winters.

California’s Path To Energy Resilience. The most frustrating political fight is California legislators and regulators singing the tune for 100% renewables but then allowing net metering changes to go to the goal line with the threat to eliminate the crucial policy for distributed energy. This isn’t just about solar on homes but also microgrids for manufacturing and schools that allow for the economy to keep moving forward if transmission is impacted by extreme weather events.

Opinion

Best, Yann