This is your SolarWakeup for December 4th, 2023

California Woes. There’s no time wasted to 1-2 punch the residential solar market. Changing to NEM 3.0 took major air out of an important market that has kept the grid up and running, creating tens of thousands of jobs. Now, just as resi companies are also struggling with interest rates, but adjusting to a solar plus storage reality, the CPUC is coming after the homeowners with higher fees. Basically what homeowners are told by regulators is, don’t go solar but if you do, then you’ll pay us more anyways and if we need your power which we will, then you won’t get paid for it. I was actually expecting the Newsom/Desantis debate to bring solar up given the way that California has gone versus Florida and how silent Newsom has been on the issue.

Managing Installer Cash Flow. Interest rates are the highest in 22 years, increasing solar financing costs and softening consumer demand for loan products. Businesses are feeling the pain of strained cash flows, labor costs and profitability pressures. Palmetto, a B2B technology company accelerating the adoption of clean energy, has announced a new partnership offering for solar installers to help stabilize cash flows and grow faster in today’s market. Built on top of Palmetto’s Clean Energy Operating Platform, this is a comprehensive suite of tools and services enabling installers to streamline operations, optimize performance, and increase profitability. Visit https://www.palmetto.com/finance or contact capital@palmetto.com for more.

Opinion

Best, Yann