By Frank Andorka, Senior Correspondent

By Frank Andorka, Senior Correspondent

SolarWakeup sat down with Dave Rosenfeld of the Solar Rights Alliance to discuss how the group came to be, what their goals are this year and where they expect to be in the year ahead. SolarWakeup (SWup): Tell us why you decided to found the Solar Rights Alliance. Dave Rosenfeld: Our Board of Directors and the leadership of the CA Solar & Storage Association should get the credit for founding the organization and seeding it with the resources to get started. I was brought in after they did that initial lift. Solar Rights Alliance was started because California's one million solar users are being left out of important decisions that affect everyone's right to make and store their own solar energy. California rooftop solar is under a sustained attack by utilities trying to make solar harder and more expensive, instead of easier and cheaper. That's because when people and businesses go solar, it threatens the utility monopoly. Also, local red tape too often also stifles people's ability to choose solar. Solar users are an army of activists waiting to be mobilized to protect their investment, and ensure others have the chance to go solar. But no one was reaching out to solar users en masse, providing them with information about what the politicians, regulators and utilities are up to, and giving them avenues to make their voice heard. There are plenty of experts doing policy and "inside game" work. But someone needs to talk to the people and get them involved, too. That's what we do. SWup: You've been compared to the National Rifle Association. Are you comfortable with this analogy? Dave Rosenfeld: In terms of the abstract idea of a people-powered organization focused on defending the rights and interests of its members and effective at doing so, yes. In terms of certain elements of the NRA's organizational model that has made them successful, yes. But we are a solar group, not a gun group, and have no position about the substance of NRA's positions - so I hope the analogy doesn't get misunderstood. SWup: What does the NRA do right in terms of activating its members? Dave Rosenfeld: First, they are unflinchingly focused on their members and mission. You don't have to agree with their mission, but you can admire how member-focused they are. Second, they talk to their members. A lot. They provide information and education, every day, through many channels. Some of it is politics, a lot of it is just about safety, hunting, sport shooting, and other aspects of gun ownership. That's key because they're building a long-term relationship with their members that leads to trust and a greater willingness to get politically active. Three, they keep things simple. You could argue they keep things too simple, but the fact is that they break political decisions down to a level that most people can understand, which most people in politics don't do. Finally, they give people numerous ways to get politically active from the simple email action all the way to canvassing for candidates. SWup: How many members do you have currently? How many do you want to have? Dave Rosenfeld: We are within striking distance of 7,000 members. Our goal is 100,000 members by 2020. It is free to join the Solar Rights Alliance - we want it to be as easy as possible for solar users to join their voices together with other solar users. You can join at www.solarrights.org. SWup: What scale do you have to reach to become that politically powerful? What are your plans to get there? Dave Rosenfeld: That's why our goal is 100,000 members. That's about 10% of all solar users, and the numbers we need in order to move the needle in Sacramento. We get there by borrowing a concept from NRA. When you buy a gun, you become an NRA member. Similarly, when you install solar, you become a Solar Rights Alliance Member. It's a little more complex than that, but the concept is correct. To operationalize that concept, we're working with solar companies of all sizes, including but not limited to: Sunrun, Vivint Solar, Mosaic, SunPower, ENGIE, Freedom Forever, Solar Technologies, Run on Sun, Aztec Solar, Corda Solar, Capital City Solar and more to encourage their customers to join the Solar Rights Alliance. Some companies are emailing their customers; others are including an optional Solar Rights Alliance membership in the installation. This is our core strategy. If we can get more resources, we also plan to try other ways to recruit solar users - door-to-door canvassing, huge social media campaigns, phone bank. This is a huge opportunity to civically engage solar users. SWup: We've been told you were particularly successful with a project in California this summer. Can you tell us what the project was and why it was so successful? Dave Rosenfeld: There were a few success points, but my favorite one is this: It was late September. SB 700 had been sitting on the Governor's desk for a month, and we were hearing reports that he was being lobbied to veto the bill. You'll recall SB700 will help people avoid expensive evening electricity rate hikes by making it easier to store their extra solar energy at home through a battery - rather than pay the utility for that evening electricity. Our members had already done a lot to pass the bill through the legislature, and a few had even traveled up to Sacramento to personally lobby their lawmakers. When we heard that Governor was being asked to veto SB700, we alerted our membership. In 24 hours over 500 members had flooded the Governor's office with emails asking him to sign the bill. We then did a second ask for people to call his office; about two dozen followed suit. The Governor signed the bill that week. Now imagine what kind of voice solar users can have when we have 100,000 members! SWup: Project into the future a year. What do you want people like me writing and saying about the SRA in a year's time? Dave Rosenfeld: I hope you can say that in 2019, the Solar Rights Alliance worked to effectively mobilize over 100,000 solar users to defend net metering from attack at the PUC, pass a Solar Bill of Rights through the legislature, and help reduce permitting red tape in several municipalities -- and throughout emerged as a good source of unbiased information for every California solar user.

By Frank Andorka, Senior Correspondent

By Frank Andorka, Senior Correspondent

Donald Trump says he's a big military supporter. He's consistently and constantly talking about the importance of military budget and has said in the past that no one, including the generals, knows more about the military than him. Which is why an article from the ever-excellent McClatchy New Service's D.C. Bureau - and reporter Greg Gordon specifically - caught my eye. It seems that the military, which under President Obama had worked hard to add solar power backup to its arsenal in case of enemy attacks, cyber warfare or destructive weather, wants to continue to leverage solar energy as an alternative source of power. But Trump, who has long declared that he was going to end the fictional "War on Coal", is digging in his heels and not allowing them to continue their investments, turning off the financial spigot just as the programs were starting to take root. Gordon writes:

But President Donald Trump has all but eradicated the words “renewable energy” from the agenda and, according to two former Pentagon officials, slowed progress toward upgrading emergency electricity supplies at bases like Camp Lejeune. Now it’s no longer clear that the Pentagon will make use of all of the solar farms installed both to combat global warming and to enhance national security at U.S. installations here and abroad.

And former military commanders are not happy, as Gordon documents:

“I am concerned, and I am frustrated,” Dennis McGinn, a retired admiral who as an assistant Navy secretary managed both that service’s and many of the Marine Corps’ energy needs during Obama’s second term told Gorodn. Progress, he said, “has slowed down,” even while private-sector technology is leaping ahead.

But the military has decided the way around the obstacle of the Commander in Chief is to remove the word "renewable" from plans put forward about increasing solar power on military bases and replacing it with the word "resilience." For some reason, they think that this particular president won't inquire too deeply about the "change" and that they might be able to sneak in an expansion of the program by just changing the verbiage. And they just might be right. What is more concerning to me is that the military believes solar will strengthen their ability to fight and defend this country, and the Commander in Chief is standing in the way because ... reasons. To me, that's a dereliction of duty worthy of a court martial. More: Military’s push for solar backup power loses speed under Trump

NRA For Solar. Yesterday was giving Tuesday and one of the groups I’d like to point out to you is the Solar Rights Alliance. The intention of the group is to focus on activating solar homeowners much like the NRA does. In the initial roll out, the hypothesis worked. The Solar Rights Alliance was able to activate and engage solar homeowners to make calls and send emails to legislators. SRA is looking for more financial backing but it is also looking for access to grow the homeowner base, make sure to get acquainted and reach out to them to learn more. 
Where Solar Installs. Part of the issue with the above exercise is the lack of data of homeowners that went solar. One startup is putting this data to work and help solar companies get more granular. I’ve personally used and paid for the data that comes from Ohm Analytics because I think that a solar community of like minded homeowners is one of the most valuable assets in solar. 
Based On Alternative Facts. In yesterday’s White House Press Briefing, Sarah Sanders said that the National Climate Assessments wasn’t based on facts. See for yourself in the clip below. 
SEIA Backs Storage ITC. Frank talks to Abby Hopper, CEO of SEIA, about SEIA’s letter asking for energy storage to be added as an eligible technology for the ITC. 
PG&E Did What? A lawsuit has been filed by PG&E customers and a new report filed with the CPUC shows that PG&E was indeed worried that winds would require that the grid be shut down but decided it didn’t need for it to happen. This is going to work out in the legal system and undoubtedly find its way into the legislative process next summer once again. 

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Have a great day!
Yann

By Frank Andorka, Senior Correspondent

By Frank Andorka, Senior Correspondent

The investment tax credit (ITC) has been one of the most successful methods for supporting solar development at the federal level for nearly the past decade. Under its provisions, solar consumers can take a 30% tax credit on their tax returns if they install solar electricity (though under a 2015 extension, the amount of the credit starts to go down starting in 2020. As energy storage has become more of a factor in people's decisions to go solar, however, there's been a growing movement that would add energy storage projects into the ITC as a method of encouraging the growth of this ever more important market. To that end, the Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA), alongside a broad coalition of energy trade and advocacy organizations, sent a letter to Congress asking it to to modify the tax code to include energy storage as an eligible technology for the ITC. SolarWakeup reached out to Abigail Ross Hopper, president and CEO of SEIA to find out more. SolarWakeup (SWup): Why now? Abigail Ross Hopper (ARH): Why not now? It is important for our grid, has strong bipartisan Congressional support and represents a big opportunity for clean energy, particularly solar. We know there is going to be tax legislation moving in the lame-duck session, and we think this is the perfect time to get this fix done. SWUp: Is there a bill to do this already in the works? ARH: The bill we’re urging Congress enact is the Energy Storage Tax Incentive and Deployment Act of 2017 (S. 1868/HR 4649). SWup: What fix are you looking for specifically? ARH: We are urging Congress to fix the investment tax credit in Sections 48 and 25D of the tax code to include energy storage as an eligible technology. SWup: What do you think the chances of passage are? ARH: We know from our visits with members from the top 100 solar districts that there is broad bipartisan support for applying the ITC to storage, and we believe it has a very good chance of still being included in legislation this year. SWup: What impact do you think this would have on the solar industry going forward? ARH: Many of our companies are storage companies too. This is a common-sense bill that will encourage investment, jobs and accelerated deployment of solar plus storage projects across the country. It’s a no-brainer. SWup: Are you seeing situations where not having ITC eligibility is inhibiting deals from getting done? ARH: Yes. For example, for utility-connected storage (Sec. 48) or community solar (Sec. 25D), where the storage technology is in front of the meter, the current requirement that 75% of the electricity comes from storage serves as a disincentive for investment in solar + storage. Eliminating this would make tax equity easier to obtain. This would also allow retrofits to qualify, and currently they only do under very specific conditions.