This is your SolarWakeup for February 16th, 2022

Merchant Solar? Not The Whole Story. From here on out, merchant solar doesn’t mean the same thing as it did in the past. It used to mean that the solar project had a secondary revenue stream like SRECs, carbon credits or production based incentive that drove the financial model and the energy value was secondary and not really relied upon. The reason that merchant solar doesn’t work without the control of generation is that a market would adapt to a solar farm that has no ability to control when it produces and exports, i.e. the marginal cost of producing the second electron is zero dollars. When an IPP says they are doing merchant solar, they mean that they are doing solar plus storage, producing when possible and exporting when valuable. Merchant solar isn’t about taking whatever they can, it means building a generating asset without adding a contracted buyer to the project before building the project.

Recasting The Forecast. It’s a reoccurring theme on SolarWakeup, forecasts come up short. Solar forecasts have been notoriously understated and energy storage is even worse. There are market segments where storage and solar are contemplating major growth, that have a zero GWh forecast in the major analyst reports. So take those with a grain of thought and look at your own market, pipeline and sentiment to guide your investments. In other words, believe in yourself and your market.

Installers First, Always. Over the past year, the team as CommonBond has worked to understand how to make lending for solar installers easier, faster and cheaper. That culminated in the public announcement that CommonBond has started serving the solar market and wants you, the installer, to learn more about the offerings that are available. To learn more about the CommonBond platform and products, contact them here. 

Opinion

Best, Yann