This is your SolarWakeup for December 20th, 2018

Happy Birthday. My daughter turns 7 today, where does the time go?
Catch Up. On the SolarWakeup Live! Podcast series. Subscribe and rate (please)
Senator Jeff Flake. Revenue neutral carbon tax from the Arizona GOP Senator. 

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Have a great day!
Yann

Philadelphia To Be Partially Powered By 70-MW Solar Farm

By Frank Andorka, Senior Correspondent Leading clean energy developer Community Energy announced the approval of a 70-megawatt (MW) solar Power Purchase Agreement (PPA) in Adams County, Pennsylvania to power government facilities in Philadelphia. The solar farm, named Adams Solar LLC, will produce enough electricity to operate 22 percent of Philadelphia government buildings by 2020. The project is the largest in Pennsylvania by sevenfold, and a significant step toward the City’s clean energy goal of sourcing 100 percent of its electricity from renewables by 2030 [wds id=”3″] Adams Solar LLC will sell 100 percent of its power under a 20-year contract … Read More →

This is your SolarWakeup for December 19th, 2018

Holiday Schedule. Starting tomorrow I will be winding down for the holidays. You will still receive a newsletter most days as long as there is coverage but the column will be shortened or non-existent. I want to thank you for an amazing 2018, the support through my move to San Francisco and another year of engagement. The SolarWakeup Live! events have taken off and we are all advancing solar together through great conversations. As always I appreciate the relationships we have going and I’m always grateful to connect with you in person. 
Would You Like This Apple? There is a place for several tech giants to take a leadership position in solar. Google went into it with Sunroof but other than that, the initiatives have remained focused on the supply of electricity. This article asks an interesting question of what it would look like if Apple took on the hard work of clean tech hardware by acquiring Tesla. I find the combination interesting and realistic. 
Resi Solar Power. 2018 has been a great year for residential solar and this story about Freedom Forever is a sign of the sector. More importantly, companies that focused on making customers happy with high quality installs were able to grow drastically. On the other hand, bad installs led to bad reviews and declining sales. I’m excited to be part of this segment right now, moving beyond incentives and subsidies to grow the part of solar that consumers love to take part of. 
Jim Rogers. Ten years ago, I had the pleasure of talking about solar to a group of Governors with Duke CEO, Jim Rogers. We weren’t quite on the same page on what solar could provide but he was respectful of this arrogant 25 year old’s comments. We gave our presentations and shared a few words afterwards and that was my interaction with Rogers. My condolences to Jim’s family and I leave you with these words, said after his retirement from Duke to EnergBiz in 2014. “I'd want the solar on the rooftop. I'd want to run that. I'd want the ability to deploy new technologies that lead to productivity gains to the use of electricity in homes and businesses. I would go after the monopoly that I see weakened over the last 25 years.  My goal would be to take customers away from utilities as fast as I could, because I think they're vulnerable. Regulations will not be changed fast enough to protect them.  The business model will not be changed fast enough.”

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Have a great day!
Yann

Freedom Forever Doubles 2017 Revenues And Expects Banner 2019

By Frank Andorka, Senior Correspondent Freedom Forever, one of America’s fastest growing solar power companies, announced today that the company has doubled its revenues in 2018 from $55 million to $110 million. Freedom Forever has established itself as one of the home solar industry’s most dynamic forces – and is poised for continued growth and expansion in 2019 and beyond. “At the core of Freedom Forever’s business model is the fundamental belief that our customers come first. Our ongoing success is a direct result of the consumer-driven, service-oriented approach we follow, which is designed to make renewable energy an attractive … Read More →

New Window For North Carolina Solar Rebates Opens January 2

By Frank Andorka, Senior Correspondent As North Carolina climbed the list of best solar states in the country, the growth was often attributed to utility-scale solar installations. But Duke Energy wants to remind you that it’s also provides nearly $6 million in solar rebates to 1,300 residential and commercial distributed generation customers, too. And the new window for getting solar rebates for next year opens on January 2. The Duke Energy solar rebate program is one of many customer programs the company is implementing as part of the Competitive Energy Solutions for North Carolina law passed in 2017. The rebates … Read More →

This is your SolarWakeup for December 18th, 2018

Selling The Green New Deal. A recent poll about he Green New Deal revealed that almost nobody knows about the bill or what is in it. When the surveyor provided some of the details, 100% renewable energy in 10 years, clean energy job training and money for energy efficiency and renewable energy, the respondent came out in favor of the Green New Deal. This included 75% of moderate republicans and 57% of conservative members of the GOP. This is one step off from Fox News running a trailer for the inconvenient truth! The takeaway is simple, don’t sell the issue, sell the solutions. But make sure to sell it nonetheless, explain what is in it for the voter and they’ll be in favor!
All About New York. Governor Cuomo had a big day when it comes to big goals. The NY PSC rolled out the goal to reach 3GW of energy storage by 2030 (it will be higher). During the Governor’s speech on his 2019 legislative priorities, Cuomo outlined the goal to get to 100% renewable energy by 2040, 5 years before the goal set by California. This is a big goal for one of the largest energy users in the Country but more important is that the State needs to move to execution. Time for talk is over and the Governor needs to enable the execution of the development that will allow the work to start.
Offshore Wind Farming. 3 developers bid into a Department of Interior auction to lease Federal lands. The bids were for $135million PER ENTITY and they were to build offshore wind. One person that would know about this is Abby Hopper, who before joining SEIA was the Director of BOEM, the government entity in charge of the auction that enabled $405million in leasing fees to be paid for the ability to generate this electricity. 
Get Your Podcast Conversations. Three new podcast recordings have been released in the past week, NJ BPU President Fiordaliso, SEIA CEO Abby Hopper, and Gabe Philips of GP Energy Management. Please share the podcast with your friends and colleagues and help spread the word about them. A lot of work goes into recording and editing them so it would be appreciated to get the listen count up. Stay tuned for more coming up, make sure to subscribe to the podcast to stay in the loop on everything SolarWakeup Live!

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Have a great day!
Yann

Q&A: Why Is Community Solar So Hot And The Keys To Getting Deals Done

By Frank Andorka, Senior Correspondent As community solar continues to streak across the solar sky as the hottest segment in the industry, the questions are twofold: Why is it the hottest segment, and what are the keys to getting deals done. Scott Wiater, president and CEO of Standard Solar, a national solar company that has recently done community solar deals in New York and Colorado, agreed to answer those questions – and offer advice to anyone trying to launch community solar programs in new areas. SolarWakeup: Why is community solar one of the fastest-growing segments of the solar industry? Scott … Read More →

New York Pledges 3 GW Of Energy Storage By 2030

By Frank Andorka, Senior Correspondent When New York announces clean energy goals, they do it in the only way the Empire State knows how to do anything: They do it big. So it was when Governor Andrew Cuomo announced his latest bid to reclaim New York’s leadership in the clean energy push that’s sweeping through the Northeast, calling for 3 GW of energy storage to be added to the state’s grid by 2030. “As the federal government continues to ignore the real and imminent dangers of climate change, New York is aggressively pursuing clean energy alternatives to protect our environment … Read More →

This is your SolarWakeup for December 17th, 2018

Creating Known Unknowns. In the latest SolarWakeup Live! conversation I speak with Gabe Philips, a college classmate of mine and an experienced energy trader. In fact, he traded electricity generated from a solar farm I developed and built in the past. We hear about power markets with corporate offtake all the time and deals in PJM, ERCOT and CAISO are announced all the time. There is a lot to these transactions and that is what Gabe and I spoke about in this Live! conversation.
 The Electric Fleet Mobilized. California is taking the solar home mandate and passed the similar version of this for transit buses. 25% of buses purchased in 2023 will have to be zero emissions and 100% of those purchased after 2029 will have to follow suit. This means that within about 20 years, all transit buses will be electric. I like when mandates are slower than what the market will do. Much like solar, electrification of fleets isn’t just something that users want, it also means a deployment of capital. Much like selling solar PPAs to schools, you’ll see companies like Proterra offering electric fleet as a service contracts to school districts across the Country. All of that load will have to be serviced and generation will have to be available, more solar will have to be built. 
Cheeeeap Solar. Texas will be the first State to drop PPAs under 2 cents in a big way. First, because storage is harder to pencil with no capacity market and second because it’s so damn cheap to build there. Land is flat and abundant while permitting will be much simpler than other areas. 
Consumers Matter. Long Island’s utility (LIPA) is taking up a similar consumer protection policy as the State oversight board. This follows many other States that have also done this. The problem with the policy isn’t that solar can’t meet it, it’s that nobody is paying attention to actually making solar companies follow the rules. I continue to be amazed at some of the junk that is put on people’s roofs and buildings just hoping that a problem 3 or 5 years from now is someone else’s mess to deal with. There are still many homes that have racking installed with no desire to meet roofing best practices or even code compliance, taking advantage of the local inspectors lack of solar knowledge. The industry must do more to protect homeowners and keep bad solar from hurting the industry. 

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Have a great day!
Yann

The Energy Show: Manufacturing Solar in the U.S. with Auxin Solar

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The Energy Show: By Barry Cinnamon Attention U.S. Department of Commerce: your well-intentioned efforts to help the U.S. solar panel manufacturing industry are not working. Even with 30%+ tariffs on imported solar panels and cells, the remaining U.S. manufacturers are struggling to stay competitive. The good news, as one would expect, is that there is strong demand for Made in the U.S.A. solar panels – both from ordinary consumers as well as government purchases. However, structural issues with the supply chain for solar components puts the remaining U.S. manufacturers at a substantial disadvantage. The reasons for these supply chain challenges … Read More →