This is your SolarWakeup for October 16th, 2018
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.
Solar And Taxes. SEIA is updating its popular tax guide. If one thing is for sure, its that solar investments will require a knowledge of the tax benefits associated with it. The more solar grows the more people get to invest in the medium so this resource becomes more widely read across the market. Just look at the impact the market has had in New York, with NYSERDA’s CEO, Alicia Barton saying: “Hot off the presses, the 2018 NY Clean Energy Industry Report is a good news reality check we need. Headline: Bold climate action feeds new jobs and economic growth. NY added 5,600 new clean energy jobs last year alone. Check out the full report! @NYGovCuomo#Rev4NY”
Lynn Jurich On Leadership. As the CEO of Sunrun, Lynn Jurich has plenty on her plate and she said down with Inc. to pass along some knowledge. One of the things that has separated Sunrun in my opinion is the value it places on policy. Others have dabbled and smaller companies find it hard to make a real impact. There are few events that I attend where an Sunrunner is not in attendance. Engie has picked up their regulatory presence as well which is always helpful to legislative outreach.
Helpful Tax Equity Info. The solar lendscape outlines the players of the capital stack most often found in solar project investments. Take a look at the 2nd edition of the lendscape showing you the 28 most prolific tax equity investors. Some folks that are applying to capital markets jobs will sound a whole lot smarter now and maybe navigate the annual Rancho Bernardo circus a bit easier.
Millennials See Solar Future. It doesn’t really matter what Vice said about solar, millennials saw the headline on Vox and are now all in on solar. Just kidding, we already had 100% of young people on our side. Combined with some of the internet ready content like this one from the Years Project, shortens the political argument to a tangible bite size.
Survey et al. Last chance to be included in the SolarWakeup Sentiment Survey. Please make sure to come to DC on Thursday for Vote Solar Equinox DC, because at the very least I want to make sure they keep me on the host committee for next year!
News
Opinions:
Have a great day!
Yann
This is your SolarWakeup for October 15th, 2018
Climate Change Shift. Climate change isn’t a topic that is too exciting to write about because it has been politicized as a topic. While I don’t understand how anyone can ignore it, I understand why political parties have taken the sides that they have. This week there was a shift however, IPCC started off with a dire warning and the President amplified it by not saying very much about it. At the same time, Hurricane Matthew ravaged the Florida panhandle. Matthew was originally expected to be a Tropical Storm but grew to a category 4 in the same waters that strengthened Hurricane Katrina. I see a society today that no longer wants to debate climate change, but maybe discuss what can be done about it. Spinning it to be a problem that is too big is bad, last year The Guardian wrote about the 100 companies that cause 70% of the global emissions. That type of viewpoint downplays the value of a 10kW home solar system or changing a single LED lightbulb. Both of this things are incredibly important and valuable to the energy economy.
17 F-22s. According to Lara Seligman of Foreign Policy, as many as 17 F-22 fighter jets may have been damaged or destroyed at Tyndall AFB in Florida. Each F-22 costs north of $300million and a single storm may have reduced the US inventory of F-22s by almost 10% at a cost of $5billion in addition to the cost of national security. This is a single line item in the cost of climate change, global warming and changing environmental landscapes. I did reach out to Coronal Energy, which operates a solar farm at Eglin AFB in Florida and they report a functioning solar farm on site with little to no damage.
Rubio Is Wrong. The IPCC report was big news on the Sunday shows and Marco Marco Rubio was asked about climate change and what he plans to do about it. “we’re going to have to do something about the impact on low-level coast areas...but I’m also not going to destroy our economy.” That is where Rubio gets it wrong because he is only hearing from the Koch side of the table. I hope that the folks at NextEra reading this make the call to Rubio to advise him on the financial benefits of solar and energy storage. Tell him where the future is for your billion dollar company, is it in coal, gas or renewables? This also shows the exact messaging we need to adapt for republican politicians. If we can’t argue the science or warnings, we need to argue the financial upside. The opportunity for bankers, lawyers, hedge fund managers and everyone else in the economy to make money saving the planet one solar panel at a time.
Orsted Joins Club. The Danish firm has been on a buying spree and taking its lessons learned across the globe. Being a clean energy major was originally coined by former Sunedison CEO, Ahmad Chatila, and GTM is bringing it back for their story on Orsted. They may be right, most of the other oil firms have dabbled but have yet to embrace the opportunity of the renewable future. It is more than a hedge on the core business units, its a full on replacement.
Coming Up. Thank you to everyone that joined me at the CALSSA dinner, it was a pleasure to see so many of you there. If you raised your hand to help raise money for the trade association that keeps the California market moving, thank you again! Next week I hope to see many of you at Vote Solar’s Equinox DC. As usual, if you spend more than $2,000 in tickets or sponsorships, you get to send me a paragraph to publish on this platform. Two weeks later, a big group of you has already registered to attend SolarWakeup Live! in Jersey City. The agenda is outstanding and the market is moving at breakneck speeds right now with new dockets starting almost every week. Solar is going to transition in NJ and if you want to learn how to make the appropriate changes, come and meet with us!
News
Opinions:
Have a great day!
Yann
This is your SolarWakeup for October 12th, 2018
We are entering the end of the year quarter and while we shoot to hit our numbers, we have to worry about what is coming up next. Based on seeing the first responses of the Solar Sentiment Survey makes me think that while you are optimistic, you need to be looking at what’s next. New Jersey is on track to replace the SREC program with something new while adding energy storage, innovating PJM markets and piloting community solar. That’s why we are heading the Jersey City next for SolarWakeup Live! the most influential event in solar. If you haven’t been to one yet, the event is a day of 1 on 1 interviews with the folks that drive the market. I do all of the interviews and get to the bottom of the issues that are important to your business. Head to SolarWakeuplive.com to get your ticket. Today only, you can get 20% off using code SWL20.
CALSSA Annual Dinner. See you there tonight! Make sure to place your bids for the auction products!
SolarEdge Buys Batteries, I Hate It. Yesterday, SolarEdge has acquired a high tech battery company called Kokam for about $88million. The premise I presume is that batteries will become as normal on a solar installation as the inverter meaning that another box will sit near the inverter with energy storage normalized into the system. That premise however creates a commodity out of the energy storage system which makes owning the battery manufacturing a bad place in my opinion. SolarEdge should have focused on acquiring a system integration and playing the commodity of the battery market to ride the cost curve down. We are in the very early stages of energy storage and I’m betting on the price declines of battery cells being very steep.
SRA > NRA. This isn’t a political post. This is a post about the funding mechanism for the NRA and the perception of the power that the NRA uses in political arenas. Everytime someone buys a gun, they join the NRA. They get a sticker and then they are on the NRA mailing list to continue supporting the association. In solar we don’t currently have a similar mechanism where every solar installation has a built in funding mechanism, until now (once you participate of course). The Solar Rights Alliance is looking to join every solar customer into an alliance and activate them during moments of advocacy across the Country. Check out the great program by seeing more about the information released in the CleanTechnica post.
NY Is In A Rush. Another $40 million from the New York State Government to spur C&I solar and storage in the State. While the money is appreciated, it would be great to see the VDER program fixed so that solar can work without the peaks and valleys created by incentive programs. VDER is too complicated today and doesn’t fully stack the value generated by generation. Moreover, the simplicity of a community solar type program could go a big way within the VDER framework. There are some signs that programs are getting more renewables in place, my friend Katie Ullman just went to work at Drift which works on the market side of greening consumers’ energy needs.
News
Opinions:
Have a great day!
Yann
This is your SolarWakeup for October 11th, 2018
Don’t Ignore The Argument. Op-eds from across the spectrum appear in publications that have the intention of turning the readers against solar. In politics the decision is often to shift off an issue instead of making an argument for the position. In solar the decision to shape an argument is helped by the fact that the reader has an 80% chance of being pro-solar. To be more specific, a Koch funded argument appeared in The Hill a few days ago attacking net metering. Today you have the response from Vote Solar’s Zadie Oleksiw rightly taking on the argument.
Distributed Solar Consolidation. Another acquisition yesterday on the development platform side, this time by Constellation. The East Coast based utility has purchased PFMG Solar from Spear Point Energy. The Southern California developer has been actively developing on the West Coast for many years. Interestingly side note, I signed in to a meeting at PFMG Solar, circa 2011, and as I walked in, the Constellation team was walking out. Now the name on the door will change, congrats to all involved.
Google Continues Their Plan. It’s been over a year since my conversation with then Google’s Sam Aarons who is now with Lyft. Back then the search giant had announced it had reached 100% renewable energy with two follow on goals. First, match the energy needs with renewable energy within the same geography and lastly, match the geography and the need with renewable energy at time of day. The post highlighted here shows the goal outlined a year ago and the ability to execute on it in certain locations in the near future.
Storage In Carolinas. Doesn’t look like Duke will be the driver to get to scale doing storage in the Carolinas. $500 million may sound good on a press release but over 15 years it’s borderline offensive. Energy storage will be tens of billions in scale all across the Country in a few years and one filing from a utility shows how out of tune the incumbents are with the energy market of the 21st century.
To Dos. If you haven’t done so yet, make sure to fill out the Solar Sentiment Survey for Q3. Also, check out the agenda for SolarWakeup Live! Jersey City, not only a great event to learn about the market movements but also get some deals done. All the top folks in the market will be there.
News
Opinions:
Have a great day!
Yann
This is your SolarWakeup for October 10th, 2018
NJ Utilities Commission. There are a lot of solar and storage topics on the docket in NJ. Recently the community solar rules for the pilot program came out. Coming up are the rules for the replacement to the SREC program and of course the studies on the energy storage implementation. That’s just on the solar front, there are topics regarding PSE&G’s proposals plus the offshore wind vision for New Jersey. This is a long way to say that the discussion with NJ BPU President Fiordaliso will be great. I look forward to getting the point of view from him about the clean energy future.
Solar Jobs Survey. The annual survey to count the solar jobs, it’s a big number, is available to be filled out. Make sure to take your time and pass it along to your human resource department so that we can get an accurate count. The link to the survey is in the post below.
Watch FERC. Montana may not be the hotbed for PURPA contracts but when it comes to FERC ruling on solar and storage with PURPA, this may be ground zero. PURPA has arguably been the best policy written decades ago with no assumption that it would help solar. Nonetheless it has been used in States across the Country to lower the cost of electricity for consumers and help utilities add a lot of solar with little friction.
SEIA Install White Paper. I see a lot of solar installations and most of them are well done. Of course that is a function of my work at Quick Mount PV but I also have seen some terrible installations that great installers have to fix for homeowners. Solar does have a small subset of ‘get rich quick’ installers. These are folks that could care less about the industry and are simply trying to cut corners and take money from homeowners. Our job as an industry is to make sure that competition elevates quality and does not race the quality to the bottom dollar. SEIA’s white paper on best practices for installations is a great start. It highlights the documentation that each party in the process should provide to the homeowner and it complements the education of homeowners and code officials. Send me more of your great pictures and solar wall of shame contestants, we need to highlight the good and bad!
Sentiment Survey. Don’t forget to take the SolarWakeup Solar Market Sentiment Survey. 30 seconds from start to finish and results will be released at solarwakeuplive.com
News
Opinions:
Have a great day!
Yann
This is your SolarWakeup for October 9th, 2018
Stopping Coal Is Not Enough. The NY Times is out with an op-ed to call for the end of coal in response to the IPCC climate change report. The truth is that the policies that are needed to make an impact on our climate future are much more than shutting off coal though that is a nice start. Policies, enacted by legislators, need to be bolder and far reaching. They need to be long term and they need to be bipartisan. I may be an ideologue here but I think we are close to that point where the politics should shift. First, renewables are incredibly popular and undecideds care that you are pro-solar. Second, hedge fund managers are warning about climate change. Third, there are billions to be made by billionaires in clean energy.
Go Blue! It is a little known fact that more than 10 years ago, Michigan was well on its way to being a solar manufacturing hub. Governor Granholm was known to talk solar on an ongoing basis before it was popular. Over the past year, Michigan and its utilities have been on a path to stop the cheapest solar energy from getting to market. But after a change of heart which started with the settlement with the Tom Steyer led coalition, the regulators are starting to drive towards the PURPA restart. With details still in short supply, there is work to do but another example of how the policy teams move the market forward.
An Easy Ask. In case you needed more reasons from me on why you should come to the Vote Solar event next week in DC, Frank is here to remind you of the likely ways that Vote Solar is helping you make more money. The solar coaster would be a lot more turbulent if Vote Solar wasn’t as good as it was. So while my ask is for you to help the group with $100, imagine the following scenario. Imagine a solar market where Vote Solar gets a check for $100 million dollars from a donor. Imagine if the solar advocacy groups had unlimited budgets to educate and organize to move solar policies forward. So instead of asking you for $100million, please consider coming to and donating $100 to Vote Solar.
NJ Community Solar. Simplifying the market for community solar is a good way to make solar more accessible within the PJM market which should have made it possible long ago. This is why I am excited to have the NJ BPU President sit with me at SolarWakeup Live! Jersey City to talk about the future of the solar market in New Jersey. I want to also thank the sponsors of the event for making it possible. Please consider visiting the sites of Aten Solar, Pfister Energy and PV Pros by clicking on the logos below.
Opportunity Missed. I am reminded of the mistake that we made during the Obama years with regard to TVA. The board of the TVA should have been stacked with folks supportive of solar policies. It would have been an example of how to lead a 21st century utility and how consumers can get cheaper electricity made from the resources they believe in.
News
Opinions:
Have a great day!
Yann
This is your SolarWakeup for October 8th, 2018
NJ BPU President. The NJ BPU President, Joe Fiordaliso, is joining me at SolarWakeup Live! Jersey City on November 6th. He was appointed by Governor Murphy to the position earlier this year. President Fiordaliso has been on the BPU board since 2005. For more information and registration to the event go to solarwakeuplive.com, tickets are nearing capacity.
Keeping Climate Change Contained. The IPCC is out with a report that should be taken seriously by everyone, and not just those in our industry. In order to keep the world at or below 1.5 degrees we need systemic change in our energy system which means we need wholesale change in our political system. This can be done if we have the will to have it be done.
More Community Solar. Washington State is out with their first community solar rules and while not the home run market regulations you would want, it definitely sets the base for the market to start. I am a fan of community solar though I always thought that regional markets with clearing prices would be the method to this segment instead of a regulatory body. That being said, this may be the way to get it done in a way that consumers understand and trust.
First Hand Notes. The clean energy retail company was founded when the CEO, Tom Matzzie, tried to put solar on his house and found it to be difficult. I recall putting solar on my home in 2011 and thought it was really hard as well. I know that things have gotten better but going through the consumer’s side of the deal gives us some perspective. This note about signing up for community solar highlights important lessons that can be improved on.
Wires R Us. Here’s a question for you, how long until today’s utilities are mostly wire companies and is this a future that is important to the solar market?
Solar Sentiment Survey. Don’t forget to have your voice included in the Q3 SolarWakeup Sentiment Survey. This takes less than 60 seconds and is anonymous. The results will be released at SolarWakeup Live! Jersey City.
News
Opinions:
Have a great day!
Yann
This is your SolarWakeup for October 5th, 2018
Feel Good Story From Illinois. A legislator helps pass legislation that makes solar in Illinois take off, creating thousands of jobs and millions of dollars in economic development. Then he leads by example and puts solar on his home, with particularly good taste in mounting technology. Many thanks for the political leadership and leading by example for the neighbors.
SunPower Takes Top Spot. Now that the acquisition is complete with SolarWorldUSA, it seems like the SolarWorld brand in the US will be eliminated by year’s end. SunPower will undoubtedly look to increase market share in residential solar while also having volume in the module manufacturing to keep the costs competitive. I look forward to seeing the next steps
Terminal Value Zero. At least one asset owner has decided that arguing the terminal value is annoying enough that giving away the energy is a better use.
Q3 Sentiment Survey. Take the survey to help us get a pulse of the current mood in solar. This will take you less than 60 seconds to answer the survey
Sponsor SolarWakeup Live! Besides reading and passing this newsletter along, the best way to support the platform is to sponsor an event. In return you get amazing visibility to the email list and the live audience. Plus you ensure the continued operation of this platform. Check out solarwakeuplive.com on how you can get involved, no better market dollars to be spent in the industry these days.
News
Opinions:
Have a great day!
Yann
This is your SolarWakeup for October 4th, 2018
Much Awaited Community Solar Rules. Few people cover community solar better than ILSR’s John Farrell and with the new rules from New Jersey being proposed, he gives you the breakdown of the good and the needs improvement. Community solar in New Jersey could be one of the most desired market changes in the past few years, there is no doubt that developers and customer signup teams will be flocking to this market. This will be a central conversation topic at SolarWakeup Live! Jersey City, get your ticket at solarwakeuplive.com so we can all talk about the community solar market together.
Governors Matter To Solar. Virginia is planning a bold solar future with 5GW of wind and solar. This is the plan proposed by Ralph Northam, the Governor. Much like many net metering, RPS and other solar friendly policies across the Country, it takes a leader in the Governor’s mansion to make it happen. Without that it becomes much harder to get things done. Elections matter and advocacy is a lot simpler if there are willing participants on both sides. We still need to show up and make our point but without a veto threat, solar can be a big winner.
Are You Feeling Good? Time to check in on the industry sentiment with SolarWakeup’s Q3 sentiment index. While 2018 has been a crazy solar coaster ride, it seems like more of a market than ever and I want to see what you think. The results of the report will be shared first at SolarWakeup Live! Jersey City on November 6th. Take the survey today!
Inverters Must Adapt. Most of the inverter companies plan to transition their manufacturing capacity out of China given the latest tariffs by the Trump administration. This may cause a bit of a product supply constraint when the changeover happens and the price is very likely to increase to the installers across the market. Just another example of costs going into the solar market that could be avoided.
The Hill Piece. is total crap. Starting out the conversation about net metering by saying that no-one argues that there is a cost shift on solar value to non solar customers means that the author assumes that solar customers are providing uncompensated value to the other customers but of course we know that’s not the case.
News
Opinions:
Have a great day!
Yann
This is your SolarWakeup for October 3rd, 2018
SunPower Closes On SolarWorld. Count me in as pleasantly surprised that the acquisition has closed. Nonetheless SunPower is already in process of putting new equipment into the Hillsboro manufacturing plant in Oregon. The plant will be producing P-Series cells and modules to be able to sell American assembled panels. The interesting side stories are now the relationship between Senator Wyden and SunPower, who were on opposite sides of the 201 arguments and how SunPower proceeds with the first two phases of the AD/CVD charges against solar imports. More to come I guess.
Another Day, Another Trade Group. During SPI there was a launch of the Solar Rights Alliance which is targeting the solar consumers to engage them for the policy battles across the Country. In many ways this is the actual implementation of the Solar Pledge which this platform launched to extend the ITC. The power of the crowd is real and SRA will likely be seen and heard from more going forward. Vote Solar is also activating the solar consumer with one of the best supporter lists in the industry. Lastly, you have a new group that aligns solar and wind industries at the trade group level. The Wind Solar Alliance will put the renewable energy giants in bigger rooms by merging the voice on some issues, I’d expect PURPA and FERC issues to be front and center for the group.
Industrials Unite In Storage. ConEdison and Johnson Controls are getting involved in energy storage together. Great headline but I am missing the key differentiator here. JCI is competent with energy savings contracts and ConEdison has tax equity/asset ownership capabilities plus a viable trading capacity. However, absent an acquisition for a real differentiator and pipeline, this may not be as groundbreaking as it is made out to be. Maybe an acquisition is in the works?
NAFTA -> USMCA = Where’s Climate? The headline says it all. Will see how Congress feels about USMCA.
Developing New Jersey. New Jersey is a State with both rural and urban centers and farm lands where the land is both sacred and valuable. Developing solar in New Jersey has a level of complexity unmatched across the Country. This is why we invited Jim Spano from Spano Partners to join me on stage at SolarWakeup Live! Jersey City. Jim has been as successful as anyone in New Jersey and has his finger on the political pulse. Join us on November 6th and register at www.solarwakeuplive.com
News
Opinions:
Have a great day!
Yann