This is your SolarWakeup for January 24th, 2020
Sunrun CEO Speaks. Lynn Jurich gets the corner office treatment from the New York Times, conducting an interview to talk about her as a person and leader of the largest residential solar installer in the Country.
SEIA CEO Speaks. In an interview with Bloomberg, Abby Hopper talks about the ITC step-down, politics of solar and the opportunities that exist in the market.
Market Speaks. Thinking about the commercial distributed market, a market that has been struggling to find a real footing, it may be possible that storage creates a real certainty on value for the investor or business owner. What’s next for this space, especially the unrated portion of it, is what could create the largest solar opportunity in history of the US market.
EV Fleets Will Speak. The future of EVs and all the tangential markets it includes will require robust policy advocacy. The Corporate Electric Vehicle Alliance will kick off the effort.
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Yann
This is your SolarWakeup for January 23rd, 2020
Utility Activism. APS, the Arizona utility, announced a target of carbon-free by 2050 with some intermediate targets. Their CEO said “We don’t actually know how to get there right now,” which says a lot considering that solar plus storage is at record prices and Arizona consumers would be more than happy to do their part by putting solar and storage on their homes.
What Groups Say. Both SEIA and SEPA were quick to put out comments about the announcement. I was saddened to see that the statements were congratulatory in nature without pushing for more open access or firm technology outlines. In fact it is hard to differentiate the statements between the two groups when there should be. Solar, not smart, energy is going to be the way this gets done for APS consumers and other utilities around the Country. Giving that brand away without debate is bad marketing on our part.
Guess The Source. Here are the two statements. See if you can distinguish them, it shouldn’t be hard but it should be a lot easier. Note that neither makes reference to the consumers. “A number of major U.S. utilities have made commitments to carbon-free by 2050, but Arizona Public Service stands out in the crowd. While any carbon reduction commitment is laudable, APS is among the very small handful of utilities that have coupled their commitment with an aggressive but reasonable interim target and specific actions that demonstrate meaningful progress." "The commitment that utilities are making to clean energy is reflective of plunging costs and a much stronger business case for going #solar."
Money To Make It Real. Two groups that have been in the news in the past week are back at it by committing money to the cause, in different ways. BlackRock has backed European Climate Finance Group to build on their project portfolio, this is capital that isn’t novel but the timing makes last week’s shareholder letter backed by action. The other capital commit is from Microsoft, fresh off their carbon negative goal. The Carbon Negative Fund is capitalized at $1billion for carbon capture, reduction and removal technologies. Let’s see what they get into.
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Yann
This is your SolarWakeup for January 22nd, 2020
Tres Commas. Bloomberg is highlighting some success stories in the ‘green’ sectors. Solar has been an industry where people have done well but we don’t have a solar billionaire as of yet. Who will it be and how will they use that wealth to advance the industry? If you think you can be that person, come on the podcast.
Green Coffee. Starbucks announced their headline carbon initiative, to lower their emissions by 50% by 2030. Unlike tech companies, I find their path much more complex given their distributed footprint and shear quantity of waste and plastics. That being said, their transition to non straw tops happened very quickly so maybe the company embraces change along with their customers. Knowing that the outcome is the right thing to achieve, I look forward to learning how the company executes and how solar plays a role. Maybe this is an interesting solar hot water integration.
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Yann
This is your SolarWakeup for January 21st, 2020
Schmoozing In Davos. The World Economic Forum starts today and climate change is going to be a central topic. The conversation between JP Morgan’s CEO, Jamie Dimon, and BlackRock’s CEO, Larry Fink, should go something like this. Climate change is a real problem but can you believe that we get to invest trillions of dollars to solve this for the world? Coal plants are not investable anymore and unless a regulator will guarantee a double digit return, I won’t even invest in a natural gas plant. The only thing worth anything on those plants is the interconnection so we can put giant batteries there.
In Reality. This is clearly the investment thesis that others are seeing. Bay Area VCs are hailing climate tech as the trillion dollar opportunity as well. On the other hand, we have’t gotten to that point yet, the conversations in Davos will be more scientific which isn’t necessarily a bad thing so that folks can be educated on the situation. That education will let deals get to the point of being seen. Once they are seen, investors will see the economic case without needing the environmental influence to say yes.
Without The Markets. One of the key regulatory intersections to deploy the capital into projects is the lack of open markets. Advocates are playing by the rules to try and make these markets more open but they are in a fight against well run monopolies that know not to give an inch. From a political standpoint, it creates a catch-22 for politicians that either want to see more renewables or those that favor free market capitalism.
What’s Next. What else do you want to see from SolarWakeup? Different type of content, events or medium? What has been published from this platform that you want to see more of? In the mood for some feedback and community brainstorming.
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Yann
This is your SolarWakeup for January 20th, 2020
Mops And Buckets For Climate Change. Building a wall around Manhattan drew the ire of Trump on Twitter, get your buckets ready New York.
Tech Helps The Fight. We’re entering an era where action has a technological and financial capability of success. Here’s Jeff Bezos showing off the new electric rickshaw that Amazon will use in India.
The Trade Deal. Phase one of the trade agreement with China was signed last week, amongst which was promising outlook for the silicon sector. As details come out, there will be plenty of opportunity to assess how this could help the solar space. It does leave in place all other tariffs on solar related items like inverters, aluminum and other commodities.
Looking Ahead. A few weeks ago, SEIA elected a new board Chair. In a quiet contest between Swinerton CEO, George Hershman and Nexamp CEO Zaid Ashai, the board elected Hershman. The Swinerton CEO has been a leading voice in tariff fights which leads the expectation that SEIA will continue to focus a large amount of time and resource on the topic. It has yet to be seen or heard how SEIA plans to move forward after the ITC loss including the discussion on the next step-down at the end of the year. I continue to wish and hope for SEIA to do public outreach to groups that could view this election as a double down on utility scale solar, away from DG and the regulatory policies that enable that segment.
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Yann
This is your SolarWakeup for January 17th, 2020
Social Media Action For Reefs. Former Miami Dolphins player, Jarvis Landry, caught me by surprise when his post included a call to action on climate change as it pertains to reefs. A new level of action for climate that solar should think about.
Two Investments, One Deck. Union Square Ventures is a well known, successful, early stage venture capital firm. This is a firm that did part of the series A for Twitter in 2007. Two new investments and 60 slides on why they are looking at climate tech as part of their thesis.
Forget Carbon Neutral. Microsoft is challenging its team to get to carbon negative by 2030, a leap from the carbon neutral goals set just a few years ago. Making this possible for its millions of customers would be a great next step. Here is their post outlining this.
We Knew. “Yeah, we knew. Everybody knew,” he said. “And somehow we all ignored it.” Those are the words of Shell CEO Ben van Beurden.
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Yann
This is your SolarWakeup for January 16th, 2020
Back with Friday rundown tomorrow.
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Yann
This is your SolarWakeup for January 15th, 2020
BlackRock’s Fink Speaks Climate. BlackRock’s CEO wrote his annual letter that outlines some philosophical points about business and climate change. By not stating the actual metrics, Fink is giving some space to company CEOs to outline their own view of this world. Company executives spend an outsized amount of their time doing what they think keeps them employed and well paid by investors. They rarely spend time doing what they think is right when they know investors will fire them for doing it. Fink coming out and saying that their investments will have a guide involving sustainability creates a new operating agreement. Looking at the largest BlackRock holdings, Exxon, Chevron and NextEra show up on the top of the list that are energy related.
A Trillion At A Time. The EU is going to investment at least $1Trillion euros to avoid a climate crash. What’s the best way to spend that and what does it mean for the industry?
Looking Inside A Mind. Dan Shugar of NEXTracker is one of the more interesting people in solar doing one of the more uninteresting things. Trackers were largely written off 15 years ago when cost would be able to catch up but with high-efficiency and bifacial modules getting traction, NEXTracker was able to build a billion dollar business and be acquired by Flex. This turned an unsexy idea into a great company and Dan does a good job opening up in this interview. Or maybe I have a soft spot for building aluminum hardware businesses in solar?
Coal Goes, What Follows? Coal is leaving stage left and now it looks like things are not going well in the world of natural gas. Too much supply and low market prices are seemingly hurting the financials of gas companies. There is still a lack of impact on gas generation, as that market expands in DG segments, but these tea leaves look to be indicating the start of a possible trend.
Oceanfront Property. Twitter is loving the words of the APS CEO, saying that the Arizona utility will not directly or indirectly fund regulator’s political races. I’m sorry to say that Arizona still does not have oceanfront property even if Mr. Guldner is trying to sell it.
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Yann
This is your SolarWakeup for January 14th, 2020
Terraform Gets A Bid. Brookfield has placed a bid to the remaining shareholders at TERP to acquire the remaining parts of the company that it doesn’t own yet. Brookfield already owns 62% of the shares and sees enough upside to acquire the rest of the company for a price that is a premium of 11% from the prior night’s closing.
ACORE Has A Dream. Four of them to be exact. An RPS, a carbon tax, clean energy tax credits, and transmission investments are part of the plan to drive a cleaner grid in the future. ACORE is right about the plan, these policies would help the planet and our industries but I am too jaded to see the political path to make it happen.
Airports And Solar. An infrastructure fund that has a portfolio primarily in airport construction and operation is acquiring solar developer, Greenskies. Greenskies has been active in the solar market for sometime and has also been looking for partners like pretty much all solar developers. The interesting evolution is that there appears to be a growing value placed on the actual development platforms not just the projects. This was a hard value to find in the market in the past, maybe things have changed.
Million Solar Roofs. There is something happening in residential solar around the world. Governments are seeing the value and incredible value in residential rooftops that don’t yet have solar. Austria is looking to install 1million solar roofs by 2040, a goal that California just reached last month.
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Yann
This is your SolarWakeup for January 13th, 2020
Disasters On Disasters. Every climate related crisis seems to layer horrific images and situations on our society. For some reason, the pictures of koalas holding our hands and kangaroos holding each other is especially sad. Imagine reading that 500 million animals have died, that’s an insane number that will create a generations hole in nature. This is a reminder that we have to be victorious in our work and regulatory expansion of our markets. We cannot fail in this endeavor as well as the work that needs to be done to expand the tent.
Hummer Comeback. The SUV that died due to being a gas guzzler, and relatively useless is making a comeback to your General Motors dealership. GM announced it will be releasing an EV Hummer in 2022 in time to compete with the Tesla Cybertruck, Ford F-150 EV and more. This is a category that should be interesting as it tests the purchase behavior of consumers that aren’t driven to EVs for environmental purposes given they drive SUVs and pickups now. I assume they will be successful which drives a huge increase of load for utilities across the Country and the need for more charging stations.
Puerto Rico Hit Again. Last week an earthquake struck Puerto Rico that knocked out a large part of the grid once again. Years after groups piloted onto the island to show them how their grid should be rebuilt, not much more than talk has occurred. Maybe a different approach should be taken up.
Being Smarter. Utilities have spent billions in ratepayer money to get smart meters onto the homes. What has that yielded those consumers? I am a PG&E customer and it still takes an engineering degree to download and review my consumption data. I’d like to see this data be more easily accessed and readable for consumers and their contractors so that saving energy can be smarter.
Watching BlackRock. BlackRock is one of the largest investors in the world and they announced they would be entering the Climate Action 100+. The world’s eyes and ears are now watching to see what this means and what, if any, changes to investment policies or voting policies occur.
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Yann