The Results Case For Politicians. Jobs, economic growth, and local investments. Those are the pillars of political talking points in an economic stump speech. That’s what solar delivers and we have to work harder inside campaigns to push for our data to get into those speeches. I’d love to hear both sides arguing who is more pro-solar, which is happening a bit in a State representative race I am watching in Florida. Try to get involved in a race and add some talking points to the candidate's speech about consumer choice, job growth and putting money into the local community.
The $10Billion Deal. Last week I asked how you would invest $10billion in renewables and none of you had any ideas. And you missed your chance to make the pitch, instead, BP is putting it into shale gas. The point I am trying to make is that someone like Sunrun, First Solar or anyone else in the rundown today, would love to do $10billion in deals but can’t get that kind of scale on a single deal. The best thing for renewables is for this deal to be a bust, resulting in the investment lost which would cause the shareholders to demand another way.
We All Need To Stand With Resi. Anti-solar demand charges must be stopped by legislatures across the Country if the regulators won’t stand up for consumers. I’ve been thinking about a parallel to the solar industry. Why don’t utilities push back on LED lights, better AC’s or gas powered dryers/stoves and water heaters? The logic is exactly the same, consumers use less electricity. On the other hand, why wouldn’t consumers get a demand credit if they buy an electric car? The residential solar market is the lifeblood to the solar industry, no matter what segment you are in, you won’t see a growing market if consumers aren’t benefitting as well.
NV Energy Choice. This is an interesting twist to the ballot question on allowing corporations to go directly to generators. The Sierra Club and NRDC came out against the ballot question and sided with NV Energy. Apparently, some sort of side deal was made.
Quarterly Headaches. I’m not a stock analyst and seldomly play the markets, but one thing is certain. Running a company like First Solar that is deep in manufacturing, supply, and development with quarterly targets. A single project slipping by a few weeks could cause massive issues for the public company. How is the company supposed to work on 30-year projects if they have to think at 3-month time horizons? Same goes true for most other solar companies that are public, quarterly targets that adjust your cost of capital can’t be the best way to run a business.
Save On Labor, A Word From Quick Mount PV. You will start to see the innovative QRail from QMPV on the ‘shelves’ at your closest distributor. Gone are the days of splicing rails together on the roof using countless metal screws. With the bonded internal splice, QRail will save you time and money when you’re on the roof. Matched with the QClick clamps, you’ll love the way your installs get done in no time. quickmountpv.com
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By Frank Andorka, Senior Correspondent
By Frank Andorka, Senior Correspondent
At Intersolar North America two weeks ago, I sat down with Martin Hermann, founder and CEO of 8minutenergy Renewables on the heels of their announcement of their Eagle Shadow Mountain project, which was signed at a flat rate of $23.76 per megawatt-hour throughout its 25-year PPA term, or 2.3 cents per kilowatt-hour. In Part 1 of our discussions, Martin Hermann and I talked about just how low he thinks module prices can go. In Part II, which will be posted later this week, Martin Hermann discussed the tariffs and their overall effect on the U.S. solar industry. Here is what he had to say in Part I of our discussions. Frank Andorka, Senior Correspondent: (FA): Module costs just seem to keep coming down. Is there a place where they stop? I heard someone say that it's all well and good that prices keep coming down, but you have to be worried that at some point, you have to be able to make money making modules. Where do you see prices going from here? Martin Hermann (MH): I don't worry about that issue. After all, if prices go so low, we've solved one of humanity's great problems, right? And I liken it to WiFi. In so many places, WiFi is free, and yet companies have still figured out how to make a business out of it. The way you capture value just changes. So I don't worry about module prices going too low. I come from the semiconductor industry, and you're not seeing the same steep decline that you see in Moore's Law. I've said this for years: The technology still has a long way to go. We are where the semiconductor industry was in the mid-90s. There's a long way to go - which is why we're so bullish on the U.S. industry. FA: You said there's a long way to go technologically. What's the next big breakthrough? MH: I don't see breakthroughs. I see evolutionary progress. And it's not as if we don't know what will happen in the next five years. It's just a matter of what will happen first and in what sequence they will happen. Before 2015, you had two technologies: cyrstalline and cadium telluride. Now you have five to seven technologies maturing at the same time, and they can mature because the market is big enough for them to do so simultaneously. And we'll see more diversification as the market continues to grow. It puts more responsibility on the developers to make informed decisions because each of these technologies has its pros and cons. We're going to see developers be forced to become more sophisticated in the way they do business because there will be a lot more ways we can drive down costs - and it's going to be incumbent on us to do it.It puts more responsibility on the developers to make informed decisions because each of these technologies has its pros and cons. We're going to see developers be forced to become more sophisticated in the way they do business because there will be a lot more ways we can drive down costs - and it's going to be incumbent on us to do it.FA: How do you manage that risk? After all, we've seen plenty of developers take risks, and a lot of them end up going belly up. MH: You have to look at the technology much earlier so that you can determine what is worth taking a risk on and what is not. If you can understand the ingredients and everything that goes into the technology, then you can make judgments about whether it's a risk worth taking or not."
By Frank Andorka, Senior Correspondent
By Frank Andorka, Senior Correspondent
A recent report from Ohio Advanced Energy Economy (OAEE), the Buckeye State branch of Advanced Energy Economy (AEE), got me thinking about politics (not, admittedly, that it's all that hard to do). According to OAEE, my home state now has more than 112,000 workers in the clean energy economy - more than are in all vocational training programs combined, and more than are employed in all car dealerships in the state (you have to be an Ohioan, I think, to understand the importance of the latter, but still).Despite attempts to weaken the advanced energy industry over the past six years, jobs continue to grow — now with over 112,000 workers and 4% more expected this year — making this a significant economic sector for Ohio. But there's so much more opportunity. Ohio could be a leader in the Midwest if lawmakers embraced an all-of-the-above energy portfolio that captures the economic benefits of advanced energy technologies.It's the second part of Fakhoury's comment I want to focus on for a moment. I wonder if Richard Cordray or Mike DeWine are listening to this news. These are a new breed of worker for Ohio, and they deserve to have attention paid - and I'm convinced that even in this red state, support for improving and expanding jobs would play well. And, well, clean energy jobs are where it is right now. (I know my Senator, Sherrod Brown, is listening, because Brown has been on the side of workers since he was a wee Representative representing the industrial stronghold of Lorain, Ohio, where my parents hail from and from whence I covered Sherrod as a wee reporter for The Lorain Morning Journal. I'm sure he could recite these statistics off the top of his head if you asked him.) So I'm making an appeal to my own Ohio politicians to take note of this new voting block and use your office to support the expansion of jobs in this area. Too many towns across this state have been left behind as the new economy has emerged, and clean energy jobs can be had anywhere. Make this a priority, and it will help power you to the statehouse. This message goes for politicians in other states, too. Advanced energy jobs now account for 3.4 million across the country, according the AEE. That's a lot of voters, not to mention their families and friends. Clean energy is an electoral victory waiting to happen if only politicians have the guts to stand up to the fossil fuel interests currently corroding our political discourse and focus instead on the energy jobs of the future. It's just waiting for someone to take advantage of it - why shouldn't it be you?
The Module Future. Just when module prices started to stabilize, there is another word from the Chinese that may continue to manufacturer at higher levels. The official word is that the local market needs to cut costs and get competitive, in other words, it could mean to sell the modules for a lower price. I don’t know what this means for the US market but you’ve got to stay on your toes in this market for sure.
Moving Forward State By State. What is it about Massachusetts that shows a prominent future in so many ways for solar that stops the simplest of net metering cap increases from not being able to go through? The same logic goes with Connecticut because both CT and MA have similar politics and great potential for solar. MA has already created thousands of solar jobs and one of the most robust development communities but the NEM cap has been fought for several years with limited success. I hope that this year it will be different and the MA politics go in our favor. That being said, there must be a truth to solar having trouble with legislators from both sides of the aisle that have been in office for too long.
Offshore Wind. The concept of offshore wind is intriguing to me and for solar. Th reason is capital and the value that large capital investment flows means to renewable energy fund investors. The billions it costs to generate big energy in offshore wind will mean big funds that own that infrastructure.
Painful Future For IOUs. It can’t be overstated what the liability docket regarding the California fires in PG&E area could be to the future of PG&E. The issue could result in PG&E being caused to have to pay billions in repairs and other liabilities. What it means for PG&E is they need a regulatory bailout in the form of a favorable decision. On the other hand, this may result in a different future for IOUs, what should they look like?
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Yann