This is your SolarWakeup for March 29th, 2019
What An Equinox. Hats off to the Vote Solar team for another great event in San Francisco. This is as important time as any to support Vote Solar. With team members across the Country opening up the markets you’ll be investing in a year or two from now.
Report From Hawaii. Engie is reporting live from the Hawaii Energy Conference in Maui, yesterday the HPUC and CPUC announced an official MOU to share resources. Picker and Griffin signed it on stage together. I hope the progressive HI commission will give a boost to our crusty one. Not sure of all the details but more to come...
What I’m Reading This Weekend. The GND ping pong continues on in DC and in the long run, the debate over 100% renewables is a good debate for solar. In the meantime, Idaho Power is crafting its own 100% RPS. Some pros in solar and renewables are making the NY Times because they have gone from fossils to renewables. One of them is the Sunrunner, Luis Davila. The corporates are coming together for a trade group to make offtaking renewables easier.
Presented by ENGIE Storage. (formerly Green Charge) helps power the world more efficiently and sustainably. As the nation’s number one distributed energy storage company, we serve energy producers, distributors, and consumers, including utilities, network operators, and energy consumers in business and government.
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Yann
This is your SolarWakeup for March 28th, 2019
Join Me At Equinox. The famous Vote Solar event is TONIGHT! Make your way to San Francisco and give to the cause that gives back to you. You can get tickets here, do it now.
Your ITC Feedback. Over 125 responses came back from the SolarWakeup readers on your thoughts for what the ITC means. Many of you jumped right into some of the ways to make it better but the overwhelming majority described what your business looks like without the ITC which for residential installers is just a few years away. Module prices are increasing and the 4% decline will hurt your market if you are in the edge markets that are just starting to bloom. Your fear is that it will never be able to go up again and it will take another 5 years to get your market back on its feet. The feedback also talked about the fairness of ITC having to compromise when oil and gas never seem to have to give their subsidy back. One feedback back to you is that while I share some of your sentiment and make it public, you need to be talking to people that have the ability to make this happen. SEIA may be reading these comments but you need to do the minimum and join at their new Basic Level for $750. This gives you the access and ability to make your voice heard at the national level.
ITC Reality. At the end of the year the ITC goes from 30% to 26% which for project financed projects reduces capital stack by about 5%. For homeowners, this means around $1,000 less from the tax credit. For both market segments, it is real money that causes some markets to fall out of favor. In less than two years, the reduction is double that amount before ultimately going to ZERO for homeowners and 10% for 3rd parties. This is an unacceptable standard of support given the impact solar has on the US economy and fighting climate change.
The Politics Of It. I am going to give you a few examples of the political landscape just this week. Representative Ocasio-Cortez went viral with 11million views on her speech about the immediate threat posed by climate change. I am sure if asked, Rep. Ocasio-Cortez would agree that solar plays a central role in her plan including the Green New Deal. Mayor Pete Buttigieg of South Bend, Indiana, signed the No Fossil Fuel Money pledge for his run for the presidency. Not afraid to shun the money and speaking out forcefully for the need to fight climate change, a generational threat as he states. In the Senate, Senator Brian Schatz of Hawaii made note of the ‘jokes’ his colleague from Utah exhibited on the Senate floor. Climate change is no laughing matter and needs to be addressed immediately. My point is that we should be miles ahead of the politicians on this. I am used to having to drag politicians halfway to my position but in this case we are hesitant to leap with them on the issue of climate change as if solar is now too big to accept our place in the fight.
The Political Reality. When the ITC extension happened, the solar industry was overjoyed. It was a last minute deal in exchange for the oil export embargo ban. The ban was lifted for good and solar was extended with a step-down. But the following years were supposed to be for solar to grow and drive costs down. Instead the entire 2017 year was spent fighting 201 and then a 30% tariff on modules. On top of that the tariffs were placed on aluminum and steel. The solar industry wasn’t in a position to execute to our fullest extent and that is why the support needs to continue longer. The political reality is that many in Congress are expecting solar to play a large role in their fight against climate change and they need to hear from us what we need. The political reality is also that nuclear is out with big asks and oil/gas continue to get big tax breaks. There is plenty to trade in Congress to get solar the tax credit we’ve maximized the value of. It is the only tax credit that has become more efficient over time for taxpayers. In a divided Congress, our lobbyists should be supported by our industry making calls and standing by ready to act. My ask is simple, we need to stand up and say that solar is the industry that will move America forward and stand on the front line to fight climate change. We ask for continued support that we’ve enjoyed over the years and additional equity with other energy sources. Support of the ITC at the continued rate and equity with the rules used for oil and gas is the ask I would personally ask for.
Presented by CleanChoice Energy. The premier community solar and renewable retail energy service provider in the United States. CleanChoice’s marketing, sales, and operations teams offer the most comprehensive customer acquisition, retention and management service to community solar asset owners and developers in the market today. CleanChoice aspires to make renewable energy accessible to all, working with more than 40 partners in every community solar market. Our regulatory team is working to expand the community solar market and uses our relationships in state capitols to benefit our partners. The company is one of the fastest growing businesses in America, as ranked on the Inc. 500 and Deloitte’s Technology Fast 500™. For more information, visit CleanChoiceEnergy.com.
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Yann
This is your SolarWakeup for March 27th, 2019
Join Me At Equinox. The famous Vote Solar event is this Thursday evening. Make your way to San Francisco and give to the cause that gives back to you. You can get tickets here, do it now.
Thank You! I want to thank everyone that attended SolarWakeup Live! and the amazing speakers at the event yesterday. With 10 interviews in 8 hours, the content was packed in tight and the audience had great questions. Please support the sponsors below for their generous support of SolarWakeup events.
This Is How You Lobby. The nuclear lobby is out of the gate and they are taking the climate change savior role. Days after receiving a $3.7billion loan guarantee on top of billions in early cost recovery, the nuclear lobby says that the world will end if State and Federal legislators act short-sighted and don’t give more to nuclear. That’s on top of free insurance and free waste management in addition to the cost recovery guarantees. Meanwhile the solar and wind industries are studying on what they want from Federal legislators and our message is being hijacked. Here is the quote from the nuclear lobby, “Now is the time for federal and state policy that values nuclear, that recognizes it for the reliable, resilient, and emissions-free source of energy that it is.” This message is ours, it’s solars to take and run with but while we are busy acting nice and standing in line, Vogtle nuclear power plant received a loan guarantee 7 times the size of Solyndra which kept solar handcuffed for years. Enough is enough, the climate change fight is too big and the solar industry is too strong to be afraid to stand up and demand our industry be supported. Two AD/CVD duties, one 201 tariff and steel and aluminum tariffs on top means that not only is out ITC declining but the headwinds are strong. Our jobs haven’t increased in over two years. SolarPledge 2.0 is coming your way, get your message in order!
Presented by Pfister Energy. Changing the way energy is generated and delivered. Pfister Energy is a leading turnkey design-build renewable energy solutions company. Servicing C&I, community and utility sectors for solar, storage and O&M. Visit pfisterenergy.com for more information.
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Yann
This is your SolarWakeup for March 26th, 2019
Presented by ENGIE Storage. (formerly Green Charge) helps power the world more efficiently and sustainably. As the nation’s number one distributed energy storage company, we serve energy producers, distributors, and consumers, including utilities, network operators, and energy consumers in business and government.
Here is the Recap of SolarWakeup Live! happening today. This is the biggest agenda in the history of SolarWakeup Live! in the 6th edition in just 18 months. I will be interviewing 10 leaders in the solar and clean tech space in one-day, many of the conversations going up as podcasts. Starting the day with a conversation about SMART and how the implementation is going with some pushback from the utilities. I will also look to see what SMART 2.0 looks like. We also engage in a roundtable discussion about community solar and the role utilities and regulators play in the process. This will be a great day of discussion and networking here in Boston.
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Yann
This is your SolarWakeup for March 25th, 2019
Presented by CleanChoice Energy. The premier community solar and renewable retail energy service provider in the United States. CleanChoice’s marketing, sales, and operations teams offer the most comprehensive customer acquisition, retention and management service to community solar asset owners and developers in the market today. CleanChoice aspires to make renewable energy accessible to all, working with more than 40 partners in every community solar market. Our regulatory team is working to expand the community solar market and uses our relationships in state capitols to benefit our partners. The company is one of the fastest growing businesses in America, as ranked on the Inc. 500 and Deloitte’s Technology Fast 500™. For more information, visit CleanChoiceEnergy.com
Keeping PG&E Deals Alive. Ever since PG&E filed for bankruptcy, I’ve been warning that it would be more expensive and possibly impossible to do deals where PG&E is the off taker. This became more of an issue when the courts said that FERC couldn’t make itself a 3rd party to the restructuring of contracts between generators and the utility. If the energy storage project developer is really worried about getting the deal done, I wonder if they are seeking a potential buyer. I would be a buyer of this type of project at the right price.
EV’s Create Alignment. The next decade is going to make electric vehicles the norm and for the first time in a long time, auto OEMs need to work together on standards and with suppliers to get the infrastructure right. Until the volume is high enough, OEMs will buy batteries from 3rd parties. Look at Tesla, they had to build their own battery plant to shore up their supply chain. You can also think about how this affects the solar industry and the build out of this infrastructure. You have relationships with home and building owners that are installing or already have installed solar. They may be interested to be part of the infrastructure that the transportation sector is looking for.
Portfolios Are Moving. Large owners of assets are moving them into new ownership, taking some of their cash gains off the table and raising new cash. I will be looking for the next iteration of asset purchases from one pension fund to another, this would signal a desire to create upside in something other than having cheaper cost of capital.
See You Tomorrow. Tomorrow is SolarWakeup Live! Boston. I look forward to seeing many of you there.
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Yann
This is your SolarWakeup for March 22nd, 2019
Presented by Pfister Energy. Changing the way energy is generated and delivered. Pfister Energy is a leading turnkey design-build renewable energy solutions company. Servicing C&I, community and utility sectors for solar, storage and O&M. Visit pfisterenergy.com for more information
Weekend Reading. Thank you for the comments on the ITC, more to come on that soon, potentially in the form of follow up questions or a survey. Make sure to go back to yesterday’s New York Times column on the massive flooding in the midwest which is devastating rural communities and family farms. Reading the Canadian Solar results makes me realize just how fragile this market is, even after a great quarter and aggressive plan, investors still long for bigger margins and diversity.
See You Next Week. If you are coming to SolarWakeup Live! on Tuesday, make sure to send me your questions for the speakers. See you Tuesday!
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Yann
This is your SolarWakeup for March 21st, 2019
Presented by CleanChoice Energy. The premier community solar and renewable retail energy service provider in the United States. CleanChoice’s marketing, sales, and operations teams offer the most comprehensive customer acquisition, retention and management service to community solar asset owners and developers in the market today. CleanChoice aspires to make renewable energy accessible to all, working with more than 40 partners in every community solar market. Our regulatory team is working to expand the community solar market and uses our relationships in state capitols to benefit our partners. The company is one of the fastest growing businesses in America, as ranked on the Inc. 500 and Deloitte’s Technology Fast 500™. For more information, visit CleanChoiceEnergy.com.
March Madness Last Chance. Head to ESPN Tournament Challenge, login and search for the SolarWakeup group. The password is Solar100 to get your entry. Of course, the winner gets to write the rundown for a day! Tournament kicks off around noon, so join now or forever regret missing this chance!
Maryland RPS. The increase in RPS passed the Senate and is going to the house where it has 74 co sponsors. According to one local advocacy expert, it has a decent chance to get through the house before it heads to the GOP Governor’s desk potentially. It still needs centrist democrats in a diverse State to make the bill a success and it’s not a done deal.
Infocast San Diego. As trillions of dollars and 250 gigawatts of pipeline gather in San Diego for the annual get together, I joined at the last minute for some meetings. For those of you that I saw, it was good to see you and sorry if I missed the rest of you. This event is an impressive gathering each year though I get to speak with most attendees through this platform every day, having a dialogue from time to time is helpful. I hope it was fruitful and you are discussing the importance of the ITC in your dealmaking.
ITC. Over 100 of you responded to the questions over the past few days. I will take the weekend to digest your feedback and speak with folks in the lobbying effort. If there is a lack of alignment, I will let you know and it will be up to the entire industry to push for what you’re looking for. Don’t forget, in 2014, the solar industry was NOT aligned on what to do with the ITC and it may not be aligned today either. At least not yet.
Front Lines Of Climate Change. “I’m looking at global warming — I don’t need to see the graphs,” said Hamburg’s mayor, Cathy Crain, referring to the role of climate change in increasing the frequency of extreme weather events. After two record-setting floods in a single decade, Ms. Crain said, “I’m living it and everybody else here is living it.”
Come To Live! Email me for the coupon code to make a last minute trip. The agenda is the best we’ve had and networking is shaping up to be top notch as well.
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Yann
This is your SolarWakeup for March 20th, 2019
Presented by ENGIE Storage. (formerly Green Charge) helps power the world more efficiently and sustainably. As the nation’s number one distributed energy storage company, we serve energy producers, distributors, and consumers, including utilities, network operators, and energy consumers in business and government.
March Madness Bracket Challenge. Join SolarWakeup readers from around the world in guessing their bracket. If you think you know NCAA basketball you are already in last place! Head to ESPN Tournament Challenge, login and search for the SolarWakeup group. The password is Solar100 to get your entry. Of course, the winner gets to write the rundown for a day! We had some technical issues yesterday so try once more before the tipoff on Thursday mid day.
What Does The ITC Mean To You? Over 50 responses to these questions yesterday and that is incredibly helpful. We have 5 times as many people in the SolarWakeup family the last time we took on DC and signed the SolarPledge, which played a central role in getting the ITC extended the first time. Here are the questions, I’d like your feedback on so we can start our mission. Are you worried about the step-down of the ITC? Are you in the camp that believes the solar market will be better off without the ITC? Who’s hurt the most by a step-down and eventual sunset of the ITC, utility scale, residential or commercial? What do you want SEIA and advocates to do? Leave as is, fight to keep at 30% or something else? Will you see your business suffer if the ITC steps down to 26%? I want your feedback so I can do a reality check on my personal view on the topic.
Likely CEO At PG&E. Bill Johnson is the current CEO at TVA and the former CEO of Progress Energy (which merged with Duke), and likely the next CEO of PG&E. This is as anti-climactic of an appointment that you could hope for. Progress Energy is known for the original nuclear boondoggle in Florida and TVA has not gone the way of the rest of the country when it comes to renewables, quite the opposite, the solar stories out of TVA are not very favorable. Let’s see where this goes from here.
Need More In Maryland. My second home is Maryland and I’m looking forward to the day that Maryland solar policy really kicks in high gear. Politically, Maryland is a complicated State even though its relatively small. DC suburbs to the Eastern Shore and Western Maryland create a diverse barrier to the Baltimores, City and County. I hope the advocates get some luck coming their way and I look forward to spending more time in the State once again.
One Of A Kind. Here’s the rundown for SolarWakeup Live next week. A legislator looking to go to 100% renewables, the CEO of the nation’s largest clean tech incubator, a Vote Solar pro, 3 of the leading community solar experts, opportunity zone financing, the Director in charge of the SMART program and one of the largest developers in the world. That’s what you get at Live! in a single day. I hope to see you in Boston next week and making this another great SolarWakeup event.
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Yann
This is your SolarWakeup for March 19th, 2019
Presented by Pfister Energy. Changing the way energy is generated and delivered. Pfister Energy is a leading turnkey design-build renewable energy solutions company. Servicing C&I, community and utility sectors for solar, storage and O&M. Visit pfisterenergy.com for more information
Tournament Challenge, 2019 Edition. Get ready to compete again for 2019! Last year it came down to the final day between Allie Detrio (Engie), Tom Matzzie (CleanChoice), and Nathan Arbitman (DSM) with Nathan coming out on top at the very end. This year, you’ll be able to join your solar friends to show your skills (luck) in picking this year’s NCAA March Madness winner. With everyone bound to pick Duke as the winner, the details will matter more than ever. Or go with another winner in the hopes to zig when the market zags. Head to ESPN Tournament Challenge, login and search for the SolarWakeup group. The password is Solar100 to get your entry. Of course, the winner gets to write the rundown for a day!
What Does The ITC Mean To You? Nothing in the news on the topic but the discussion has been circling my inbox since my comments last week about solar being left out of the Senate extenders package. Are you worried about the step-down of the ITC? Are you in the (small) camp that believes the solar market will be better off without the ITC? Who’s hurt the most by a step-down and eventual sunset of the ITC, utility scale, residential or commercial? What do you want SEIA and advocates to do? Leave as is, fight to keep at 30% or something else? I want your feedback so I can do a reality check on my personal view on the topic.
A Disservice To America. Kentucky is doing a disservice to its residents by killing its solar market. Solar in Kentucky was well on the way to do like Texas and Florida, compete with electricity with no subsidy whatsoever. It would have created an excellent opportunity for job training and good paying jobs with upward mobility through local small businesses. Instead, at the bidding of the incumbent coal and utility market, Kentucky is going to keep those opportunities from the residents in Kentucky.
Community Solar Future. It’s always been surprising to me that California doesn’t have a robust community solar market. There was a recent project that mirrored the concept outside of the rules but the attempts to do community solar have fallen short. We’ll be talking about the state of community solar growth across the Country with a rockstar panel at SolarWakeup Live! next week. Just one more week until we get together in Boston. The agenda is long and thorough, we added another room to get a few more people into the event which area always very good networking. Email me for a special code to get into the event by hitting reply or go to solarwakeuplive.com
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Yann
This is your SolarWakeup for March 18th, 2019
Presented by CleanChoice Energy. The premier community solar and renewable retail energy service provider in the United States. CleanChoice’s marketing, sales, and operations teams offer the most comprehensive customer acquisition, retention and management service to community solar asset owners and developers in the market today. CleanChoiceaspires to make renewable energy accessible to all, working with more than 40 partners in every community solar market. Our regulatory team is working to expand the community solar market and uses our relationships in state capitols to benefit our partners. The company is one of the fastest growing businesses in America, as ranked on the Inc. 500 and Deloitte’s Technology Fast 500™. For more information, visit CleanChoiceEnergy.com.
What Is Big Oil Saying? Axios interviewed the CEO of Equinor and asked some climate related questions. The answers were less than interesting but I find myself looking for transitionary comments that guide action at the oil majors. Maybe we should be ignoring this but I view the oil companies as the natural successor to the hype we had with pension funds over the past few years. Oil companies are better with energy, the uncontracted upside and their knowledge of trading is a natural fit for our industry.
More Nuclear Bailout. Ohio and Pennsylvania look like the two next States that will be supplying nuclear power plant operators with some bailout policies. Especially on the East Coast, there is a lack of renewable energy density thus far with mediocre paces of development. Advocates for renewable will use this leverage to advance solar policies if they play their cards right, more likely to move the needle in PA than OH but both will have talks.
Kids Go Marching. On Friday, millions of kids around the world took their message of climate action to the streets. This is a generational message from future voters that they will not take over a planet that is in worse shape than it is today without trying to make it better. It is the responsibility of us and our elected officials to make everything a little bit better than it was given to us.
One Week Left. The SolarWakeup Live! agenda is final. We have a legislative sponsor of the 100% RPS bill joining us as well as Vote Solar’s representative for the State. Join us on March 26th. For more info, go to solarwakeuplive.com
Vote Solar Equinox. Don’t forget to join Vote Solar for the annual Equinox event in San Francisco. Get your ticket here
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Yann