This is your SolarWakeup for May 28th, 2024
Good Everything Forever. The solar industry lost its most unapologetic supporter yesterday and I lost a good friend. Some of you knew that through SolarWakeup, I had one of the most unlikely friendships with Bill Walton. From the very first time we met at SPI a decade ago, spending two hours in the press room where he diligently asked every question about solar he could think of, to the random words of encouragement he would send at random times. Few things brightened my day as much as those hellos at 7:01am and if the newsletter wasn’t published, Bill was the first and often only person to make sure everything was okay. I say this to give you my time with Bill and how was the most amazing human and everyone that met him has a similar experience with him. Bill reminded people of a time of joy, whether it was remembering watching a game with their dad or seeing him at a Grateful Dead concert, Bill was always full of life. We’re going to miss you Bill! Good Everything Forever…enjoy the party with Jerry.
News
1 New York Times:
Bill Walton, N.B.A. Hall of Famer and Broadcasting Star, Dies at 71
2 Utility Dive:
Batteries saved Texas consumers $683M during 2-day January freeze - Aurora Energy Research
3 Bloomberg:
China’s Falling Emissions Signal Peak Carbon May Already Be Here
4 Axios:
Buttigieg says climate change is affecting transportation
5 PV-Tech:
BNEF - Solar and wind capacity to reach 31TW in 2050
6 Energy Storage News:
Kern County progresses Avantus’ 2GW California battery storage and solar project
7 Heatmap News:
Biden’s Long Game on Climate
Opinions:
8 PV-Magazine:
Energy security in renewables-based systems
Have a great day!
Yann
This is your SolarWakeup for May 23rd, 2024
Opinion
News
1 Semafor:
Price wars, infrastructure hurdles hurt China’s solar industry
2 Bloomberg:
Texas to Face Heat Index of 110F in Late Spring Test for Power Grid
3 Reuters:
US says tariff increases on Chinese EVs, batteries and chips to start Aug. 1
4 Latitude Media:
Geothermal startups are suddenly raising a lot of money
5 Energy Storage News:
Chile opens land bidding for 13GWh of storage projects in Northern regions
6 Canary Media:
California bill would undo rules making it hard for schools to go solar
7 PV-Magazine:
Market impacts from the recent flurry of solar policy actions
8 Utility Dive:
Investing in green companies
Opinions:
9 New York Times:
Biden and Big Oil Had a Truce. Now, It’s Collapsing.
Have a great day!
Yann
This is your SolarWakeup for May 21st, 2024
SolarWakeup Tax Credit Transfers? Should SolarWakeup get into the tax credit transfer craze? I feel like we could crowdfund some deals here.
Storage Analytics Webinar. Many of you are deep in building a battery portfolio or doing diligence to do so. Controls and the software platform give you the insights to keep the battery on, detect any issues that you may have and analyze how to increase performance. You can catch that webinar and register here.
News
1 Utility Dive:
Clean energy tax credit market poised to grow amid new transferability rules
2 Bloomberg:
Giant Hail Is the Weather Threat Keeping Insurers Up at Night
3 Renewable Energy World:
RWE acquires nearly 600 MW of new projects
4 Energy Storage News:
InfraVia acquires Dutch/Belgian developer Giga Storage
5 Heatmap:
It Was a Big Week for the Power Grid
6 Canary Map:
Puerto Rico’s rooftop solar boom is at risk, advocates warn
7 PV-Magazine:
Trends in residential solar finance, equipment and maintenance
Opinions:
8 Solar Builder:
City officials need to stop excessive solar fees
Have a great day!
Yann
This is your SolarWakeup for May 20th, 2024
Energy Access Capitalism. If your house lost access to the grid, would the price go down? If your house access to the grid was capped at a certain load, usage or time of use, would the value go down? With all real estate, that’s now one of the issues to contend with. If you own a distribution centre, and can’t get the grid access for EV charging, the rent will be lower.
News
1 Bloomberg:
Banks Warn of Growing Energy-Related Risks in Mortgage Portfolios
2 Renewable Energy World:
Treasury, IRS issue additional guidance on domestic content bonus
3 PV-Tech:
DOC opens AD/CVD investigation into Southeast Asian solar cells
4 Solar Builder:
Carlyle Group invests in Sungage Financial, will buy $450 million in resi solar loans
5 CNET:
Climate Change Is Making Rooftop Solar More Valuable, Research Shows
6 Utility Dive:
ISO-NE proposes transmission planning changes to boost states’ ability to reach environmental goals
7 Solar Power World:
Latest NC Clean Energy report finds utilities concerned about load growth
8 Canary media:
Chart - Global clean energy manufacturing, by the numbers
Opinions:
9 PV-Magazine:
The U.S. multi-pronged approach to onshoring solar manufacturing
Have a great day!
Yann
This is your SolarWakeup for May 17th, 2024
Opinion
News
1 PV-Magazine:
Bifacial solar module tariffs reinstated
2 Bloomberg:
Texas Power Grid Sees Several Days of Supply Strain
3 Utility Dive:
25 GW of new solar to boost summer grid reliability, but extreme heat poses widespread risks - NERC
4 Reuters:
Japan's Honda raises electrification investment to $65 bln through FY2030
5 PV-Tech:
LBNL - residential solar PV installations remain flat since NEM 3.0 in California
6 RTO Insider:
NY Energy Storage Industry Seeks Faster Path Forward
7 Renewable Energy World:
The United States surpasses 5 million solar installations
8 Energy Storage News:
UK system operator reassessing ‘outdated’ Capacity Market de-rating factors for storage
9 Canary Media:
TVA’s local solar program is about to get its biggest project yet
Opinions:
10 Yale Climate:
‘Turning point in energy history’ as solar, wind start pushing fossil fuels off the grid
Have a great day!
Yann
This is your SolarWakeup for May 16th, 2024
Opinion
News
1 Bloomberg:
Texas Is Warned of Blackout Risk as Sun Sets This Summer
2 Utility Dive:
AEP Ohio proposes data center, crypto financial requirements amid 30 GW in service inquiries
3 New York Times:
Despite Billions in Investments, Biden Trails in Arizona and Georgia
4 Axios:
DeSantis signs bill wiping climate change references from Florida law
5 Reuters:
The inside story of Elon Musk’s mass firings of Tesla Supercharger staff
6 PV-Tech:
Tigo Energy reports ‘more stabilised environment’ and consistent results in Q1 2024
7 Solar Power World:
AD/CVD Round 2 - Southeast Asian solar panel players will again be investigated for unfair practices
8 Energy Storage News:
Japan’s ‘increasing need, coupled with policy support’ for battery storage entices US investor Stonepeak
Opinions:
9 PV-Magazine:
U.S. government doubles tariff rates on PV cell imports from China to 50%
Have a great day!
Yann
This is your SolarWakeup for May 15th, 2024
Quick Take. Biden increased 301 tariffs, with right concepts. Delaying storage to 2026 to give the industry room to create a domestic supply chain and removing tariffs on the equipment needed to build solar factories in America.
Little Big Wins. Solar trade advocates fought behind the scenes to shape these wins that have big impacts, thank you.
Taking Names. Tomorrow you can watch the preliminary hearing for the latest trade AD/CVD trade case. I won’t post the agenda with who’s testifying in favor of destroying America’s solar market but you can watch the proceedings or login to the EDIS system and see the agenda. In case you want to take names and prioritize your partners, but that’s up to you.
Heading North. Sending this from the usual 37,000 feet as I spend a few days in two of my favorite cities, DC and Annapolis. Always great to get some summertime Chesapeake sunshine!
Hats Off To AJR. I got to spend last night with my two sons at an AJR concert, the first concert for my youngest. Amazing show and highly recommend to any fellow AJR fans reading this.
News
1 Axios:
Clean tech becomes latest move in U.S.-China chess match
2 Associated Press:
Biden hikes tariffs on Chinese EVs, solar cells, steel, aluminum — and snipes at Trump
3 Bloomberg:
Biden’s China Tariffs Leave Space For Key Solar Machinery
4 Reuters:
Meme stock squeezes and new tariffs shake up US solar sector - Maguire
5 PV-Tech:
Silicon Ranch to build 110MW Tennessee PV project with electricity co-op
6 Energy Storage News:
Puerto Rico - Regulator approves 360MW plan to accelerate battery storage deployments
7 Canary Media:
Plug Power lands $1.7B DOE loan guarantee to boost hydrogen production
8 PV-Magazine:
Two approaches to save net metering in Puerto Rico
Opinions:
9 Utility Dive:
Clean energy groups praise FERC transmission order but want more reform
Have a great day!
Yann
This is your SolarWakeup for May 14th, 2024
Big Grid. FERC is moving to push for more capital to flow towards grid build-outs, in line with State regulators approving most of the grid optimization requests from IOUs. The no-vote from FERC was a cop-out saying that this is a giveaway to developers when in reality there’s just not enough generation on the grid for the load growth ahead. Interesting how rate based gas power plants never have grid issues…
Unavailable Batteries. Texas has become a hot energy storage market with many unsure how long the ancillary service market will continue (for the foreseeable future given the demand growth and unreliable power plants). On the other hand, storage has a major problem with many storage projects operating at 60-70% availability and less in some cases where commissioning and balancing are dragging project starts by a year plus. This will have to get resolved, in some cases by recommissioning systems and in others by doing optimization projects with folks that “know where to hit the hammer”. Obviously, I have a unique perspective on this, and reminds me of the early days of solar when folks were doing everything in projects because the landscape had not yet matured.
News
1 New York Times:
New Rules to Overhaul Electric Grids Could Boost Wind and Solar Power
2 Utility Dive:
With 78% of requested investments approved, US regulators are backing grid modernization
3 Bloomberg:
Biden Aims to Show Voters He’s as Tough on China as Trump
4 Energy Storage News:
US DOE seeks feedback on energy storage safety training, manufacturing challenges
5 Axios:
The changing climate of U.S.-China relations
6 Reuters:
EQT offers $1.5 bln for renewable energy project developer OX2
7 PV-Tech:
FTC Solar meets revenue forecasts in Q1 2024, predicts stable revenue in Q2
8 PV-Magazine:
Renew Home launches with virtual power plant solution
Opinions:
9 Canary Media:
How Texas became the hottest grid battery market in the country
Have a great day!
Yann
This is your SolarWakeup for May 13th, 2024
Noisy Week. We enter this week with all the talk about what the 301 tariff review will bring us and headlines focused on the EV tariffs. The solar and storage industries focused their advocacy to kickstart domestic manufacturing without impacting the markets. Ultimately the hope is that the trade representative understands that many portions of the supply chain aren’t available here yet and we can’t go back to the 1-yard line without disrupting the enormous economic output of the industry. Moreover, with the grid stressed and in need for new generation, solar is the most reliable generation builder at the moment.
The Anti CleanTech Pitch. There’s always a hope to be a non-partisan issue, to rise above the gridlock in DC. Who wouldn’t solar to grow and do well, create jobs etc, even when polling has historically always had solar in the 80% plus range. When it comes to the Presidential election Trump can’t really hit Biden on oil production because Biden has seen oil production rise to all-time highs but he can promise to disrupt the electrification in transportation as much as possible. We all know that politics is a full contact sport, I’ve said it here many times, but a candidate trading executive action openly for fundraising is a bit more than I’ve seen publicly and privately. So let me make a fundraise pitch. SEIA has the SolarPAC, which advances our causes. They do so across both parties and it has been very successful strategy but it needs more funding that can only be raised in lower dollar thresholds. Check that out here.
News
1 Washington Post:
What Trump promised oil CEOs as he asked them to steer $1 billion to his campaign
2 Utility Dive:
California PUC OKs $24/month fixed charge for IOUs with eye to equity, electrification
3 Politico:
‘A little bold and gross’
4 Bloomberg:
US and China Seek Collaboration on Climate Despite Trade Rift
5 Reuters:
New Biden tariffs on China's EVs, solar, medical supplies due Tuesday - sources
6 PV-Tech:
ReNew inks 800MW of solar PV PPAs in India
7 Renewable Energy World:
The giant battery boom is here — This Week in Cleantech
8 Energy Storage News:
Ontario makes Canada’s biggest-ever battery storage procurement to meet target
Opinions:
9 Canary Media:
Chart - Renewables generated a record 30% of global electricity in 2023
Have a great day!
Yann
This is your SolarWakeup for May 10th, 2024
Opinion
News
1 Utility Dive:
Clean energy, gas generation in PJM may take longer to come online than expected - report
2 Politico:
Why Biden needs California to build more solar
3 Bloomberg:
Indian Renewables May Get Costlier
4 Reuters:
US grid operators PJM, MISO team up to study power transfer capability
5 PV-Tech:
Solaredge inverters shipments up again quarterly to 946MW
6 Energy Storage news:
Netherlands’ ‘non-firm’ grid connections and lower fees could double BESS deployments
7 Canary Media:
Batteries are taking on gas plants to power California’s nights
8 PV-Magazine:
Energy transition needs batteries… and more batteries
Opinions:
9 Axios:
Exclusive - Biden gets glowing review on climate amid struggles with young voters
Have a great day!
Yann
