This is your SolarWakeup for December 4th, 2019
The Tariff Effects. SEIA released a report showing that the solar tariffs have caused more than 62,000 job losses or missed growth. At least $19billion in private investment was lost while 10.5GW of solar was not installed. The harm hit the States that have the most borderline markets already that could have created job and business opportunities if US modules were priced at the same level as other markets globally.
Trump White House Claims ‘Fake News’. Navarro called SEIA “a loose confederation of Chinese solar companies seeking to destroy American solar manufacturing jobs and U.S. solar installers that want cheap Chinese panels and don’t care how many American jobs are destroyed by China’s heavily subsidized industry.”
SEIA’s Abby Hopper Responds. “We were heartened to hear the president talk today about his concern over climate change, and I think we are all in agreement that greater use of solar energy and a strong solar manufacturing presence is one way we can meet our collective goals of continuing American economic growth and addressing climate change in a meaningful way. We’d be thrilled if Mr. Navarro would come to one of our conferences and meet some of the 240,000 Americans who work in this great industry, including the tens of thousands of people who are manufacturing solar products. We look forward to working with the Trump administration on ways to advance real manufacturing growth without these particularly counterproductive tariffs.”
SolarWakeup Comments. The White House doesn’t have to like the report and can even rebut it. They could have easily countered by saying that solar is growing and new manufacturing has been built in the US thanks to their policy. Instead they go straight to the fake news and the kicker quote. SEIA is a lot of things and not perfect from my standpoint but diminishing the association to a “loose confederation” or “Chinese solar companies” that “don’t care about American jobs” is complete malarkey. Most of you reading this newsletter are members of SEIA and know that the jobs you create and you hold are cared about. I don’t care what party you come from, there should be robust condemnation of the Navarro comments.
A New Era Of Investment. Axios’s Dan Primack, whom I ran into at SFO yesterday, is out with a renewable energy article. This is news by itself given that he covers private equity in greater detail than any reporter. The TL:DR is capital is drying up for fossil fuel generation and a lot of the investment is going to go towards renewable energy. Of course we have to make sure the pipeline is robust enough for the capital to be interested. The further takeaway is that executives and board directors will have adjust their messaging and strategy going forward. Watch this space.
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Yann
This is your SolarWakeup for December 3rd, 2019
Unbundle Solar. “I’d tell my mom to sign up” is the best headline of 2019. I’ve had some great conversations with community solar executives as well as pondered my hopes as to where this market goes this year. All of it can be summed up to this headline because that is where we need to be. There is a never ending demand for community solar and more needs to be developed. 2021 is the year that this market takes off with a nice run-up continuing next year.
Co-op Opportunities. The western co-ops have been largely untapped by solar developers because of the agreement with Tri-State. This agreement limits how much each co-op can contract independent of the group. Once this dam breaks, and it will, you will see some incredible capacity of solar getting contracted. This may even open a new merchant market.
EV Through Policy? Los Angeles is looking to have 80% of new vehicles be electric by 2028. Through incentives, infrastructure and working with ride hailing companies, it should be achievable. Here’s my question though. San Jose is currently at 21%, almost 3x Los Angeles. What makes EVs more common in the Bay Area than their southern partners? Maybe we should figure that out before embarking in a policy driven game of guess what?
Personnel Moves. Eric Wesoff is back! The former Editor-in-Chief at Greenwich Media is now the editor of PV-Magazine USA after former editor, Christian Roselund, left for Rocky Mountain Institute. Welcome back Eric!
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Yann
This is your SolarWakeup for December 2nd, 2019
Welcome Back. Thank you for letting me take a week off last week, because life has been busy we skipped right over the 7 year anniversary of SolarWakeup and the 2,500th edition of the daily newsletter. We’re read more than a million times a year and growing now and for that I am thankful.
The Tweet To Ponder. I’ve talked about the need to spend on policy in the past and we, as a solar industry, still don’t. It is the agenda item most ignored in board rooms because we feel like we’ve never been able to show the payback of the policy spend. So let’s look at how it works when the big boys do it. Here are a list of companies and their political contributions in anticipation of the tax bill of last year, just one example. Look at Pharma, oil, gas, utilities or defense as other examples of how the US political system goes round. Your spend doesn’t need to be just contributions, you can do that through SEIA PAC or the CALSSA PAC or supporting some of the trade groups. Add a zero to your policy budget for next year, please.
Big Problem, Big Names, Big Hopes. John Kerry is launching World War Zero. A group that includes The Who’s who of the global establishment to highlight the national security risk and wartime mobilization caused by global warming. The group includes Presidents Clinton and Carter as well as GOP governors Kasich and Schwarzenegger. The celebrities joining the group include Leonardo DiCaprio and Sting. Interestingly, World War Zero will not propose policies instead opting to make itself known in battleground states and speaking at military bases that are impacted by climate change.
Different Type Of Activism. Two variations of activism that could have an impact on the energy markets. If you watched the Yale-Harvard football game last you saw that student activists stopped the game from restarting for the second half. They were protesting for the divestment of the Yale and Harvard endowments. This is in fact a way to impact the decision making process of large investors and similar to hedge fund TCI ($26B AUM) arguing that directors should be more transparent in their company’s polluting activities.
The Integrated Storage Play. Enphase has opened their website for pre-orders of their Ensemble energy storage platform. The pre-order is a great new tool to gauge interest and create a pipeline ahead of release. It’s also a great tool for supply chain folks to make sure they are getting enough of what they need and keep customers happy. The micro inverter to energy storage platform is the launching off point for the IQ8 system that will open new potential revenue streams like what we saw from Sunrun/National Grid in ISO-NE earlier this year.
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Yann
This is your SolarWakeup for November 21st, 2019
More column tomorrow. I’ll be off next week, hope you enjoy your Thanksgiving holiday week. SolarWakeup will publish again on Friday and then return to your inbox on December 2nd.
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Yann
This is your SolarWakeup for November 20th, 2019
We’re In The Game. With the release of a Discussion Draft, Chairman Neal of the House Ways and Means Committee put the solar ITC on the track to get a 5 year extension. This is not a bill, nothing has been voted on and nothing has been decided except this was the political step to get the ITC moving forward. The pathway remains the same as before, a massive spending bill at the end of the year that gets the House and Senate to put political barriers aside to keep the government operating. What solar needs to do now is show the politicians that solar has jobs, opportunity and political power so that when the final deal gets negotiated, solar isn’t left out.
Don’t Stop The Pressure. Click Here and fill out the call to action. Send your letter to your member of Congress and if you have a twitter account make sure to blast it as well. The entire process takes 60 seconds. Now that we are in the game, we have to make sure we cross the finish line. Democracy is a full contact sport and we have to push our message. Jake Marshall from CED Greentech San Diego showed me a picture of a computer they put out for customers to use to sign the call the action, I urge you all to steal the idea and do the same. Anywhere you come in contact with solar supporters, put out the webpage.
Make A Call. Take another 5 minutes and call your member of the House, particularly those of you in AZ, CO, CA, NV and NY. Not all of your employees and colleagues read this newsletter, please forward this email to them and encourage them to fill it out as well. Let’s get more letters sent out today and everyday, click here now! Post one of these two paragraphs on LinkedIn and tag me and SolarWakeup to get the post re-shared. Let’s see how many folks we can get involved in the political process.
Why This Matters. US Energy related carbon emissions went up 2.7% last year, a trend in the wrong direction tied to the economic growth that the US continues to experience. At this time in history, the ITC would allow the energy sector to decarbonize and adding storage to the credit would help replace even more fossil based generation.
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Yann
This is your SolarWakeup for November 19th, 2019
ITC Call To Action. Click Here and fill out the call to action. Send your letter to your member of Congress and if you have a twitter account make sure to blast it as well. The entire process takes 60 seconds. Why? Congress is going to release tax extenders very soon and we have to be in the bill. We’re alive until we’re not and I guarantee you that this is the most important 60 seconds of your career this year. Take another 5 minutes and call your member of the House, particularly those of you in AZ, CO, CA, NV and NY. Not all of your employees and colleagues read this newsletter, please forward this email to them and encourage them to fill it out as well. Let’s get 10,000 letters sent out today, click here now!
The Courts Opine. I’ve been lightly following the various court cases making their way through the system. The one with the most sober headline is against Exxon about what they knew about climate change in the 70s. I don’t expect this to be a case similar to the tobacco companies but money in a settlement seems like the most obvious win for the plaintiffs. Similar to the VW settlements, some of these dollars could drive new markets or R&D spending to counter the effects.
More Blackout Notices. Moments ago I received another PSPS blackout notice from my new friends at PG&E. We’re seeing each other so often that people may start rumors about our friendship. Regardless of a blackout actually happening every notice creates a new sense of panic in consumers’ minds. This means that every notice of a power outage reignites those solar leads we wrote about last month and with storage adoption reaching 15% of solar installs, you’re starting to see real traction in this space.
Personnel Moves. In a move that shows maturity in a market, storage/DER/microgrid pioneer AMS has moved their former VP of Product to CEO. Susan Kennedy is moving to board chair and the CEO role goes to Seyed Madaeni. Madaeni build their algorithmic trading platform that launched in Australia and looks to go live in California as well.
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Yann
This is your SolarWakeup for November 18th, 2019
Nothing To See Here. A few weeks ago it was announced that regulators in MA were opening an investigation into the interconnection practices. Going as far back to my last SolarWakeup Live! in Boston, solar was being stifled by delayed and expensive interconnections. As soon as the investigation is announced, National Grid finds an extra 300MW that can connect without any cost. That’s great but what would be better is a transparent, speedy process so that development can continue past stops and starts.
A New Era. Ford unveiled their first real electric car, a crossover named Mustang. I’m going to judge it by the cover and headline numbers as a winner. Pricing comes in at mid 40s with a standard 230 mile range and an option to get to 300 miles. In 2021, expect two versions of the Mustang GT to come out as well. The looks of the car are great as well, like a Mustang version of a BMW X6. We shall see how it does, but it’s the first electric car not from Tesla that I find compelling. Why is this important to solar? Homes with electric cars are much more likely to put solar on their home and think about it for their office. Plus the additional load makes the need for new generation more likely.
The Norm Going Forward. The smaller Arizona utility is adding a 250MW solar plant that also includes storage. The battery will be a 250MW/1GWh version that will allow the plant to shape its peak and move production to higher value. Aside from grid services, I would expect that the plant release energy sometime mid day and recharge to have a full load for the morning peak. If SRP releases an operating plan, I will make sure to pass that along.
Lots of Chatter. The farmer goes solar chatter is increasing in strength and frequency. This story is important to the future of solar in America and hopefully our industry learns ways to tell more of it.
Congrats. Christian Roselund is leaving his post at PV-Magazine to become the editorial director at Rocky Mountain Institute. A great addition at RMI, congratulations to Christian on the new gig.
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Yann
This is your SolarWakeup for November 15th, 2019
New Home Solar Lives. On Wednesday, the CEC pushed a decision that could have hurt the solar on new home requirement requested by the utilities. This will come back and hopefully with local community solar for multi family units only.
Ratings and Advance Rates. More securitization are being done in solar. Once a novel concept, almost every quarterly filing highlights another securitization, some of which are now rated A and offer mortgage level rates.
Compete and Improve. It’s true, renewables have to compete on price without the backstop of a guaranteed return and pay for the infrastructure improvement. Many of these improvements are priced to hurt the renewable generation which caused the MA regulators to open an investigation into the local utility.
The Transition. Earlier this week Tesla received a prestigious German auto award and then announced a new factory in Berlin. While Tesla is littered in online polarization, there is no doubt that companies like VW and Mercedes have advanced their timelines by a decade because of their success. Elon was on stage with the VW CEO this week, an interesting dynamic.
Census and Local Shows. Make sure your company fills out the Solar Jobs Census and if you are in the Maryland/DC area, attend the MDV SEIA conference Solar Focus.
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Yann
This is your SolarWakeup for November 14th, 2019
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Yann
This is your SolarWakeup for November 13th, 2019
Growth, Training Required. Sunrun reported their quarterly earnings yesterday and CEO Lynn Jurich led with the blackouts in California. Sales are booming for the company, as with the market, but Lynn highlighted the lagging installation numbers. With 600 jobs listed by the company, it reminds us of the work we need to do to train the workforce all installers need to get solar installed. If only there was a way to merge the impact from coal bankruptcies with the location of solar installation jobs. From a manufacturer’s standpoint, I think a lot about how we can be helpful in the training of the workforce. We have the facilities and knowledge but lack the time and resource to bring folks in and let them know that training is available.
More Jobs, Jobs, Jobs. It’s that time of year again – The Solar Foundation needs your help to complete the Solar Jobs Census. The nonprofit organization is preparing its tenth annual report that is the authoritative source of solar employment numbers, nationwide and state by state. Please help them succeed by completing the Solar Jobs Census survey now.
The DG Microgrid, Financed. Vivint Solar is out with a new PPA product that pairs solar with storage. This goes into the current state of mind of consumers that just had a blackout and are thinking about the value storage would have provided to them. As time passes, that values goes back down to zero and the consumer is no longer interested in paying for the value it creates.
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Yann