This is your SolarWakeup for September 18th, 2018
In Jersey We Grow. Policy certainty, policy guidance and willing market participants means a growing market. That’s what we have in New Jersey and why we picked it as the next SolarWakeup Live! event. Check out the growing agenda at solarwakeuplive.com and reach out if you want to be a sponsor.
EV You Missed It. It happened late last week and the coverage was weak. The final version of SB 1014, a California legislation by Senator Skinner, may not be as strong as the original version but it shows the path forward. The legislation pushes ridesharing companies to move towards electric vehicles. Ubers and Lyfts (and others) have a much higher utilization than personal cars so if we electrify those, you are electrifying more vehicle miles than you could imagine. This is the TPS (Transportation Portfolio Standard) where we measure the total vehicle miles driven by non-fossil powered motors. Merge a 100% RPS with a 100 TPS and you have an interesting future.
East Coast Storage Punch. Both of Frank’s stories yesterday are about energy storage, one story out of MA about big storage and another from New York about the continued push by Governor Cuomo. I think there is a reality in storage that people understand whereas solar seemed somewhat magical. I am keen to see real energy storage business models develop, this is one of many topics I will be discussing with Gabe Phillips of GP Renewables at our Jersey event.
Solar On Your Side. Sol Systems made a big portfolio purchase with their capital fund partnership with Nationwide. This is a transfer of assets from Cypress Creek and Sol Systems, two companies many in solar know well and have seen grow over the years.
Certainty In Pricing. What makes the community solar market in Minnesota bigger than other markets? I put the difference on the certainty in pricing from the regulator instead of the utility. While having a regulator in the process creates some risk, it makes the customer very clearly understand what their savings would be from a reliable source without having to read a complicated tariff schedule.
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Yann
This is your SolarWakeup for September 17th, 2018
States Will Lead. As we saw last week with Governor Brown signing SB100, the States are continuing to move their policies into our direction. The reasons are clear, the policies create local jobs and improve local air quality as coal plants close across the Country. This trend should continue to drive into the distributed sector to remove diesel generators and replace them with renewable charged energy storage. As States make the decisions that determine the speed of growth in solar, I remind you of the importance of the Governor’s mansions especially in places where the Governor appoints the public service commissioners.
The EEI Playbook. Do you remember the leaked EEI memo from a few years ago that tried to rename utility owned solar, community solar? This similar rhetoric testing is ongoing and the memo was leaked to David Roberts of Vox. Interestingly, even when EEI poll takers tried to ‘push’ folks into their thought process, it didn’t work. Americans want more renewables even though EEI says it it is not technically feasible. Americans want more renewables until its 100% renewables and they want it basically without regard to cost. This is the problem with the overlap of EEI and the solar industry and EEI member companies with solar trade organizations. Just read the highlights of the EEI memo, EEI is shocked that their customers are so ready to move to renewables which utilities view as their competition.
Cities Take Action. If 57% of Cities are taking action on climate change, how are you getting involved in shaping that action? This is part of the year-long talk about the 10/10/10 plan from this platform. You should be taking 10 hours a year for yourself and each person in your company to advocate for the policies that will grow your market. Don’t think about policy as an obtuse concept, instead use the word market growth.
Big Solar, Big Market. Utility scale solar is cheap and available. Corporations are fighting with utilities to buy the output of solar farms across the Country as long as the regulatory framework allows the bilateral arrangement. We are entering the era of sub 2 cents per kWh solar energy and will soon enter sub 5 cents per kWh dispatchable solar with energy storage.
Live From Jersey City. November 6th, solarwakeuplive.com. Thanks to the sponsors that have signed up already, Aten Solar and Pfister Energy.
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Yann
This is your SolarWakeup for September 14th, 2018
Solar Markets’ Insights. The second quarter solar market insight by SEIA is out. A total of 2.3GW was installed and California continues to lead. However, there are some new States in the top 10 including Texas and Florida which are due to surprise many in the industry. Residential didn’t slip year after year, signifying a return to growth for the market in my opinion, with many markets becoming more stable.
Nevada and Arizona NEM. It is no secret that Arizona and Nevada went through long battles around net metering which got worse before they got better. Part of those processes was the elimination of a cliff caused by a NEM cap instead replacing it with a reduction of net metering credit, now called an export tariff. Call it a FIT, a VOS or otherwise, this is NEM 2.0 becoming NEM 3.0.
Deloitte Chimes In. Deloitte is out with their renewable energy outlook which backs some data on announcements that are confirmed during the Global Climate Action Summit. Just yesterday, 21 corporations and many mayors came together for big goals on an integration of renewables and reduction of greenhouse gas emissions. I think we are all on the same page at this point that renewables are on the upward trend. The regulatory hurdle now is how fast and how profitable the trend is.
Gigasolar Photos. Pretty cool images of the solar project on top of the Gigafactory in Nevada.
SMART But Slow. Many State newspapers are running solar growth stories but MA has to give a hard look at the fact that SMART is yet to get going. The struggle to delay the program is part of the regulatory battle. Delays for solar developers means overhead and costs that aren’t in the plan or budget. Delays are always part of the regulatory goal for those that seek to hurt the solar industry’s ability to grow. Hopefully, the MA solar market can trust that the future holds a fair program that allows solar to prosper and get back to the success it had a few years ago.
Be Seen Here. Jersey City is the 5th event in the SolarWakeup Live! series. As part of the program, we invite sponsors to help defray the costs and provide the best visibility in the industry for events and digital media. You can see the exact details but you’ve seen the sponsors on this email in the past, the visibility is consistent and long duration. Check out the sponsor page for more details and hit reply if you are interested in speaking to me about it.
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Yann
This is your SolarWakeup for September 13th, 2018
Stay Safe Carolinas. Hurricane Florence is bearing down on the Carolinas with fierce wind and rain. Trees will fall on power lines and it will take time to get everyone back up and running. I was there a year ago when I had to miss SPI to evacuate for hurricane Irma. It was then that I realized that I needed to move out to California away from the storms. Interesting outlook on the solar infrastructure in North Carolina from Bloomberg ahead of the storm.
DNV’s Outlook. The Energy Transition Outlook has an interesting takeaway, calling for renewable sources to make up 80% of the electricity generation by 2050. This is only a few points and years off the recent legislative goal set by California’s 100% by 2045 with the clean energy/renewable sources caveat before I get lectured on the detail of the comparison. Frank highlights some of the more important parts of the report.
Obvious Pruitt. He’s going to work for a coal company. Surprised that he didn’t go solar post-EPA.
Aligning Advocacy. Vote Solar announced yesterday that it is supporting the Steyer backed ballot question in Arizona. This comes a day after the ACC sided with the solar argument for the grid access charges. Consumers are expected to be bombarded with millions in anti-clean energy advertising but I would be surprised if the ballot question doesn’t pass.
SolarWakeup Live New Jersey. November 6th, agenda and tickets on solarwakeuplive.com
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Yann
This is your SolarWakeup for September 12th, 2018
SB700 Makes SB100 Possible. Don’t take it from me, when signing SB100 Governor Jerry Brown said that energy storage is crucial to the success of the goal of 100% clean energy by 2045. This sets the stage for SB700 to be the tool that the Governor backs to move forward. A 5-year plan to lower the cost of energy storage for the distributed market alongside the CAISO decisions to allow distributed assets to participate in a more meaningful way is exactly the type of leadership that California is executing on. The local solar industry is ready to take the baton and enable the market with volume and pricing declines.
Arizona Goes 3-2 For Solar. Some changes in the net metering rate, now called the net export rate, but overall the requests for more fees and anti-solar charges was denied. Vote Solar and Earthjustice have been working against the grid access charge for years and that hard work paid off. This allows the local market in Tucson to continue moving forward and add to the recent growth in the market.
The Unity In Solar. James Redford and Adam Browning bring the unity to talk about how clean energy brings Americans together in a Washington Post op-ed. This comes a week after we saw SEIA visiting the top 100 congressional offices with the top two coming from the Minority and Majority leaders’ offices. Unity also means support and that support is the political leverage that we need to use in political and regulatory outreach. I remind you that an important property tax exemption in Florida was shepherded by a State legislator that is listed as the top politician by ALEC.
Jinko Builds Out. The local paper has the permit data that shows that Jinko Solar is looking to spend $14million in addition to the interior structural buildout that has already started. It looks like Jinko is deep into their process to produce solar modules out of Jacksonville in their 270k sf warehouse.
Topics In NJ. We’ve got some great topics so far lined up in Jersey City on November 6th. What other topics do you want to hear about? The agenda and tickets can be seen here
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Yann
This is your SolarWakeup for September 11th, 2018
100 Ways To Clean. Remember September 2018 in your personal solar almanac. With SPI coming up in a few weeks, let me know what event I should attend, and the climate change action summit this week, Governor Brown is making the news. He signed SB 100 yesterday which drives California to a 100% clean energy future. Next up is SB700 which should be signed this week. Nothing in politics is done until it’s done so if you live in CA, please make sure to call the Governor to get it across the finish line. SB100 is aspirational and a counter program to a federal policy that lacks a goal. More importantly, this sends a signal beyond subsidies and regulatory policy that California is the solar market for years and decades to come.
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Yann
This is your SolarWakeup for September 10th, 2018
Community Solar In NJ. Nice to see some big potential numbers associated with the 450MW community solar goal in New Jersey. Between the jobs created, local tax revenue and dollars invested, New Jersey solar is looking like it could add billions of dollars of economic benefit. With an already healthy market for solar, community solar will add more solar advocates to the roster since the benefit of solar will be available to many more people. We’ll be sure to talk about this in Jersey City in a few months.
90GWh, Let’s Talk TWh. LG Chem is increasing its 2020 output by 29% to get to 90GWh. Keep that number in your head and let’s talk about this again a year from now. 90GWh will be nothing compared to the manufacturing capacities that are coming up a few years from now, especially from China. For solar, the storage ecosystem still needs a lot of work before the market figures itself out between the spreadsheet you’re looking at and the companies like LG that are making the battery cells.
Big Win In NM. PNM had put in place a rather unsavory solar fee but it looks like that may have turned around in solar’s favor. This came at the same time as Facebook’s announcement of their new solar farms in New Mexico and reminded me of the conversation I had with a Google exec that told the story of corporations pushing for better solar access for the consumers while they pushed for their deals. Great job to the policy folks involved in this.
Big Week In CA. Everyone is watching Governor Brown this week as SB100 and SB700 sit on his desk awaiting his signature. With a global delegation of high ranking, government officials come to SF for the climate change summit, I would expect the Governor to make the announcements on these bills during a high profile event. At least that’s what I am hoping.
Are You Coming? solarwakeuplive.com Jersey City. November 6th.
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Yann
This is your SolarWakeup for September 7th, 2018
Please have a great weekend and enjoy today’s solar news! If you haven’t recently, please let your friends and colleagues know about the newsletter and our events. Coming next to Jersey City on November 6th.
Powerhouse Growth! A great evening for the New Dawn, a fundraiser for solar’s most well known incubator, Powerhouse. Congrats to the team and thanks to all the sponsors for supporting the early stage companies that are a part of Powerhouse. I had a great time meeting many of you in Oakland last night and look forward to seeing many of you again at the CALSSA Annual Dinner.
Big Money In Sector. Energy Impact Partners has closed a fund to the tune of $681million. The original fund was mostly from utilities that were looking to have an investment into new energy technologies and companies. I’ve thoroughly enjoyed watching EIP grow and make their investments into the space.
Co-Op Report. Rocky Mountain Institute has a new report out that talks about the overlap of coal and renewables for cooperative utilities. This goes with the report from last week where co-ops were considering leaving their generating entities to have access to more renewables both for consumer demand as well as the price. These are interesting times for consumer led utilities and a job well done by RMI.
Murphy’s Vision. NJ’s Governor Murphy has a bold vision for solar and we’ll be talking about it on November 6th, check out the speakers and agenda at solarwakeuplive.com
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Yann
This is your SolarWakeup for September 6th, 2018
Political Solar Irony, Plus 100. An early morning press release from SEIA highlighted one of the great results of the solar industry we’ve all created. SEIA visited the representatives of the top 100 solar congressional districts which in itself is a great achievement and they did so without great pomp and circumstance. There is a great story in the top 2, the congressional district with the most solar jobs is Nancy Pelosi while the district with the most solar capacity is Kevin McCarthy. So here you have the House Majority and Minority Leaders with something as great as solar in common.
Interesting Acquisition. Centrica, the giant multi-national company with $28 billion in revenue, is buying the Bay Area installer Vista Solar. Vista Solar is well known in the local community but not beyond that give that it has installed 40MW for 160 customers over the past 10 years. Centrica does own Direct Energy which means that it could be making a play to aggregate top-tier regional commercial installers instead of making a single national acquisition.
A SC Deal In The Works. Solar advocates have reached a deal with Duke Energy in South Carolina to temporarily reinstate the net metering rules until the spring in the hopes that it will spur a long-term deal. Given where the legislative session ended, with a victory for Duke but sentiment on solar’s side, it may appear to Duke that a negotiated settlement is the best path forward.
Get Your Ticket, Early Bird. Thanks for the great support from those of you that have already bought their ticket, over 100 of you have already done so. Early bird will only go on for a few more days so get yours now. www.solarwakeuplive.com
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Yann
This is your SolarWakeup for September 5th, 2018
Reminder. Make sure to add @solarwakeup.com to your safe email list. Every now and then the email gets flagged due to the amount of emails that flow every month (it’s gotten much bigger than the original 37 recipients). If you haven’t received the email then make sure to check the safe list! While you’re at it, make sure to get your colleagues to take the leap and subscribe!
Memo To Utilities. Time to move past the net metering is a subsidy argument. Especially when reports show the value of distributed generation during congestion and high demand times. The argument should revolve around the impact that solar has on shareholder investment opportunities and the future of the grid when solar plus storage bring a ton of demand response value to the operations. All is not lost, focus the future on electric vehicles and the ability to manage the grid as a lines company.
Introducing Clearway. When NRG decided to sell NRG Renewables, which I think in retrospect is something that the NRG CEO will regret in the long run, I expected more of a household name to come after the assets. It appears now that GIP was looking at a platform to deploy capital, likely a virtually unlimited amount of LP money. GIP closed the transaction and created Clearway, quickly adding a massive SunPower portfolio to its assets. Make sure to familiarize yourself with the name.
Ohio’s Solar Potential. Ohio was on the way to being a great midwest solar market well before Illinois ever tried. But the politics of America’s swing state took the market into the gutter but it could have been great. Now a report by Repowering Ohio shows the potential for 2.2GW of renewables for Ohio and so many local jobs. It’s a great political strategy in my opinion for folks to show that renewables can work for everyone, whether you work on a roof, a factory or in an office tower.
Inside The Deals. We need more corporations to talk publicly about how they did their renewables procurement. Large companies have the internal expertise and time to figure it out, what the market really needs is large scale procurement by small and mid-sized companies that have to copy the format of those large entities. So enjoy this inside the deal article about Mars PPAs.
New Jersey Solar. Join me on November 6th and get your ticket now please! I’d appreciate the support. If you have topic recommendations, now is the time as the invitations are going out, these are 1 on 1 interviews where the audience actually gets to dig into a topic. Abby Hopper, SEIA’s CEO, will be joining us at SolarWakeup Live! Jersey City as the first announced speaker.
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Yann