By Frank Andorka, Senior Correspondent

By Frank Andorka, Senior Correspondent

After several years of fits and starts, Massachusetts yesterday began to accept applications to it's Solar Massachusetts Renewable Target, or SMART, program. Billed as a successor to the state's former solar Renewable Energy Credit (SREC) program, the SMART program is designed to encourage solar development in the state within the context of its three major utilities. According to the SMART website:

The SMART Program is a 1600MW declining block incentive program. Eligible projects must be interconnected by one of three investor owned utility companies in Massachusetts: Eversource, National Grid, and Unitil. Each utility has established blocks that decline in incentive rates between each block.

One commissioner, Judith Judson, explained to MassLive why they needed to move away from the SREC program:

"It was a volatile, market-traded program," said Judson. "National companies, or even an individual homeowner, didn't know what they would be getting from the SREC market. We've changed it to a predictable revenue stream."

Applications submitted within the next five days will be considered as part of the same capacity block. Further, according to the SMART website:

Applications for facilities less than or equal to 25 kW AC will be reviewed and placed into Capacity Blocks in the order that their contract was executed

Applications for facilities greater than 25 kW AC will be reviewed and placed into Capacity Blocks in the order that their Interconnection Services Agreement was executed

All applications received on or after 12:00 AM ET December 1, 2018 will be reviewed and placed into Capacity Blocks on a first come, first served basis. The program still allows Massachusetts residents to enter into leasing agreements. Under the old rules, leasing companies could claim the SRECs. Under the new program, they will just be able to collect the tariff payments instead. The launch of Massachusetts' SMART program is exciting to those of us who have been waiting for the Massachusetts market to take off. Now that a successor to the SREC program is finally in place, that may finally happen. More: Massachusetts accepts first applications for new solar SMART incentives

FERC Nominee Showdown. Look for more under the radar news about the nominee to join FERC after Bernard McNamee was videotaped saying “renewable energy screws up the grid” amongst other anti renewable rhetoric. This is up to the republican leadership in the Senate but given some Senators support for wind and solar energy, this could spell some trouble for the nomination. Look for solar supporter, Senator Thom Tillis (R-NC), to potentially step into the sunshine given his 2020 re-election date. 
Good For Me, Not For You. Some markets have great amount of solar especially within rate based approvals but lack the uptick of distributed generation. The likely reason is that the market policies work against consumer choice that stop consumers from being able o put solar on their roof. Frank takes you through the story out of Georgia. 
Get Some Energy (Storage). The utilities have taken over the cap tables across the energy storage space and many European utilities have been more active than some US utilities. The most notable energy storage company in the market for acquisition is FlexGen which we covered a few weeks ago and who has been active providing storage solutions to IPPs like Vistra Energy. 
Trump Refuting Trump. Mainstream political reporter from the Washington Post goes line by line of the most famous Trump speeches and refutes them with the National Climate Assessment. Worth a read. 
Who Gets Hurt. Whether it was the 9th ward in New Orleans during Katrina, firefighters on Long Island during Sandy or folks living in Paradise during the Camp Fire, those that are harmed by the effects of climate change are everyday Americans; often lower and middle income. The cost benefit for many Americans is largely obvious, given that the people that can most take advantage of the opportunities of the clean energy future also benefit from less dramatic climate events. Like some people say, the worst that can happen is a great new economic opportunity is created. 
Where To Next? Where should SolarWakeup Live! go to next? What market is opening up and you want to learn more about?

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Yann

By Frank Andorka, Senior Correspondent

By Frank Andorka, Senior Correspondent

In the past five years, solar capacity in Georgia has gone through the roof. It's grown so fast, in fact, that it is ranked as the 10th largest solar state according to the Solar Energy Industries Association's annual rankings. But just because it's grown rapidly doesn't mean it's grown evenly. The growth Georgia has seen has mostly accrued to the state's largest utility, Georgia Power, instead of individuals and businesses owning their own rooftop systems. One group - Solarize Middle Georgia - is looking to even the playing field a bit, at least according to an article in the Macon (Georgia) Telegraph. This isn't the first Solarize movement to take up residence in the Peach State. As the article states:

Similar initiatives have taken place in other Georgia communities, like Athens-Clarke County, where residents are able to sign up for free evaluations that could help determine if solar is a worthy investment.

“The price of solar has come down 70 percent since 2010,” said Don Moreland, executive director of Solar CrowdSource who is also involved in Solarize Middle Georgia, told the Telegraph. “Some of the incentives that used to be in place have gone away. Solar is now competitive with what you would otherwise pay for the utility bill. ... You come out way ahead with solar compared to other electric bills.” Overall, the story is a good one, though there are a couple of flaws. One is that it misdiagnoses the module glut of the early 2000s as a "too many companies" problem rather than a "too many panels" problem. They also overestimate the costs of solar and make it seem more expensive than it really is. But the key here is that rooftop solar, despite having no governmental support (no net metering, for example), is coming to the middle of the state. And when that segment of the industry takes off, there will be no stopping solar growth in the state. More: Georgia is full of solar power, but not among homeowners. This group wants to change that.

What You Missed. While you were recovering from your turkey coma, the Trump administration dumped volume II of the National Climate Assessment on black Friday. In the hopes that no-one would see it, it caused quite the weekend on Twitter. On Thursday I was wondering why Trump was busy tweeting twice about the climate change hoax and how cold it was on Thanksgiving. Obviously this was in anticipation of the release the following day. Today is a day to talk about climate change, the reality being that solar is so bipartisan that neither side wants to make it an issue to debate in an election and until solar makes politicians pay for voting against solar, climate change is the issue that will lead us. I’m not saying this is the best path for solar but it is the political reality. 
The Friday Dump. In 1990, Congress passed a law requiring the executive branch to release a climate change assessment every 4 years, volume II of which was released in the proverbial Friday trash. You can read the full report here. The report comes a month after the dire warnings of the IPCC and is no less dire in the wording and impact to the economy. If America and the world don’t start acting on climate change the world will be a different place and any legislator that ignores it will likely be thrown out of office over time (how much time is the question). 
The Takeaways. Vox gives you the three biggest takeaways in of the 1,500+ page report below. Moreover, the New York Times gave two columns on the front page on the issue. 
Right’s Reaction. Climate change made the top issues on the Sunday shows. Senator Mike Lee and conservative talking head, Danielle Pletka, knocked down the report with “I’m not a scientist” and doing something about climate change would be “harmful to the economy.” You no longer need to be a scientist, you can simply believe the Trump administration’s report and their warnings about the impacts of climate change. On the other hand dealing with climate change not only isn’t harmful to the economy, it is helpful as the report says that failing to deal with climate change is a 10% drag on the US GDP. 
Left’s Reaction. The loudest voice online, in my timeline, was Senator Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota. Senator Klobuchar was on the Sunday shows and lightly dodged the questions about running for President, it’s not a no but no decision is made. Klobuchar rightfully highlighted the impacts to the midwest and how climate change will hurt farmers across America. Politicizing the impacts is the right step forward for politicians that find issues that they care about and their opponents do not. 
From The Author. There are many authors but I urge you to read the Katharine Hayoe’s twitter feed on the topic. She is well versed as a climate scientist and speaks clearly about the issue ahead and what your takeaway should be. If you’re not planning on reading the National Climate Change Assessment, read this tweet story. 
Political Next Steps. As I mentioned above, climate change is the political reality for everything within solving climate change. Solar should politicize 100% RPS across the Country and talk about clean energy job creation. But when it comes to the political reality, don’t expect solar to be the wedge issue that makes politicians do pro-solar on both sides and ignoring this fact would be political negligence by our trade associations, (i.e. no more solar awards to republicans for now). Don’t take this is as a negative however, the report also broke down the demographics of who is most concerned about climate change. Hispanic Catholics, who have been historically hard to rally for the left, are most concerned about climate change. More than anything, climate change now created a wedge issue for a key political demographic.

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Have a great day!
Yann