Trade Saga. We’ve been here before, another anti-dumping trade case has been filed. This time highlighting subsidies and unfair pricing from product with the origin of Cambodia, Malaysia, Thailand and Vietnam. There was some thoughts that India could be included but it was not. We now embark on a 6 month process with a check-in in July for a preliminary determination. The filing has the name of some US based manufacturers that filed the case, namely First Solar and Q-Cells. Given the IRA benefits for domestic manufacturing, I wonder what the impact of local subsidies could imply to the case though I don’t expect much. I’ll refrain from my thoughts on this overall saga that has plagued this industry for a decade plus but wouldn’t it be great to be able to buy solar panels at the sub 10cents per watt that other markets get to?
Opinion
News
1 Reuters:
US solar panel makers seek import tariffs to protect new domestic factories
2 New York Times:
Blinken Goes to China With Potential Trouble on Horizon
3 Renewable Energy World:
Solar industry reacts to new tariff petitions targeting Southeast Asian countries
4 Utility Dive:
ERCOT launches new planning efforts as 2030 load growth projections soar 40 GW in a year
5 Bloomberg:
French Grid Issues Are Causing Power Prices to Soar in Europe
6 Axios:
Extreme weather is making power outages trend higher
7 Solar Power World:
SunPower to cut nearly 25% of workforce, including direct residential sales
8 Energy Storage News:
LG Energy Solution fires warning shot to patent infringers as battery industry prepares for wave of lawsuits
9 PV-Magazine:
Enphase delivers revenue miss amid softened residential solar demand
10 Heatmap:
Biden’s Climate Cash Is Finally Pouring In
Opinions:
11 Canary Media:
How the Biden admin is trying to boost renewables on public land
Have a great day!
Yann
Houston. Good morning from 37,000 feet as I head to Houston for the Voltility Energy Storage Summit. This is becoming one of my favorite events because it is centered around networking and not pay for play advertisements on the handful of panels. While I love going to many events and understand the incredible cost to put them on, having done that with SolarWakeup Live! I love being in person with other leaders building out this market. Should we bring back the SolarWakeup Live! event?
Opinion
News
1 Bloomberg:
SunPower Slides After Disclosing Plans to Restate Earnings
2 Reuters:
Enphase forecasts revenue below estimates as inverter market stays under pressure
3 Politico:
Solar drives renewables milestone in California
4 Utility Dive:
GM Energy rolls out its first vehicle-to-home EV charging products
5 Axios:
First Look - Spotlight on climate migration
6 PV-Tech:
Highland Materials secures US$255.6 million 48C tax credit to build polysilicon plant in the US
7 Renewable Energy World:
Q1 EV sales match all of 2020 as demand surges amid investment - IEA
8 Energy Storage News:
Croatia allocating €500 million for BESS – report
9 Canary Media:
Tritium, major supplier of EV fast-charging equipment, is insolvent
10 PV-Magazine:
Congress urged to reform clean energy bottlenecks before 2024 election
Opinions:
11 Heatmap News:
Are Pollsters Getting Climate Change Wrong?
Have a great day!
Yann
Negative Price Signals. I always have a hard time with bad headlines. While the Washington Post article doesn’t say anything novel, the headline implies that solar is such terrible energy that it gets thrown away. What it doesn’t say is two important things. First is that cheap solar energy has lowered the cost of energy for all of California in a way that nobody every predicted with a plethora of low cost PPAs that have no commodity price adjustment for fuel. Second, is that a negative price, is a price signal for investments that leverage arbitrage, like batteries. Energy storage arbitrage will enable more solar to be built than the 47GW that already has been built and ultimately create a base case for solar making up for most of the generation on the CAISO grid. That being said, there’s control complications that need to be taken into account and keeping those batteries flexible won’t be easy. This article is the exact reason why I love chairing the energy storage division for SEIA, because the combo of solar with batteries is exactly what we need in this energy transition.
Resilient Puerto Rico. Some humble brags for my team at FlexGen for signing on to a great project in Puerto Rico with Arclight Capital’s Infinigen. We all know how unreliable the Puerto Rico grid has been after many storms have harmed the infrastructure. This is an important step for more resilience that I’m proud to be a part of on Earth Day.
Opinion
News
1 Washington Post:
Rooftop solar panels are flooding California’s grid. That’s a problem.
2 Energy Storage News:
FlexGen to deploy 15MW BESS in Puerto Rico for Arclight and Infinigen
3 PV-Magazine:
Earth Day celebrated with $7 billion solar funding announcement
4 PV-Tech:
Maxeon sues Hanwha QCells over alleged US TOPCon cell patent infringement
5 Canary Media:
Data centers want clean electricity. Can Georgia Power deliver it?
6 GreenBiz:
Salesforce to lobby for new rules on AI’s environmental impact
7 Axios:
Exclusive - New Democratic transmission legislation
8 Renewable Energy World:
U.S. hydropower generation expected to increase by 6% in 2024
Opinions:
9 Utility Dive:
Solar PPA prices stable for now but expected to rise absent interest rate cut - LevelTen
Have a great day!
Yann
Opinion
Best, Yann
News
1 PV-Tech:
Maxeon sues REC Solar over US TOPCon cell patent infringement
2 PV-Magazine:
Mercom, WoodMac note challenging PV investment climate in Q1
3 Utility Dive:
NYISO launches first-in-nation DER integration program in move toward FERC Order 2222 compliance
4 Bloomberg:
America’s Clean Tech Withers Even as Imports Are Blocked
5 Axios:
Many voters unfamiliar with Biden climate law, despite economic benefits - polling
6 Reuters:
FERC to unveil US power grid reform on May 13
7 Heatmap:
A Big Week for Batteries
8 Canary Media:
Chart - The US clean energy backlog is getting bigger and bigger
Opinions:
9 New York Times:
A Planetary Crisis Awaits the Next President
Have a great day!
Yann
