SEIA, The Solar Foundataion Attack Permitting Costs Head On

By Frank Andorka, Senior Correspondent With cost being wrung out at every level of the solar installation, whether it’s module, inverter and racking prices, installation labor and even operations-and-maintenance. Yet the stubborn issue of exorbitant soft costs continues to plague the industry and keep prices artificially high. Numerous studies have been done to determine the best way to bring those costs down, but they still remain high – at least until the Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA) and The Solar Foundation (TSF) decided to do something about them. To that end, the Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA) and The Solar … Read More →

Powerhouses Join Forces To Provide Services To C&I Solar Segment

By Frank Andorka, Senior Correspondent It’s common knowledge that the commercial & industrial (C&I) segment of the solar industry historically has struggled to find financing and put together projects. The reasons for the struggles are myriad, but mostly it has to do with banks not being sure what to do with commercial properties and how to securitize them. Now two industry powerhouses are joining forces in the hopes of relieving some of that pressure. EDF Renewables North America (EDF Renewables)and EnterSolar announced a strategic partnership whereby EDF Renewables will acquire a 50% interest in EnterSolar that will allow the company … Read More →

This is your SolarWakeup for September 24th, 2018

Headed To SPI. Here’s to day 1 in Anaheim for SPI 2018. At SolarWakeup we won’t bore you with the stream of press releases but we’ll look for the storylines that matter to your business. If you have any tips or info that should see the light of day, you can always hit reply on this email and send it over. Enjoy the show and we’ll be talking throughout the week. This is a good time to tell your industry friends that they should be subscribed to SolarWakeup as well. We are about to graduate from an auditorium filled with people to an arena and that’s a great place for solar to be headed. On Friday, SolarWakeup celebrates its 6th birthday, so we look forward to celebrating that with you.
The SolarAPP Permit. Later today at SPI, SEIA, The Solar Foundation and others will be working on the SolarAPP, the ’instant’ permit process that could open many doors for your installation business. Imagine only having to wait a few days from the contract signing to start the project, that’s a future we should all look forward to. I am excited to see how the process will play out and if you have ideas on the implementation of this, send them this way.
Resiliency In Solar. Bringing this back to the top because the post-hurricane Florence solar results are coming in. Solar did incredibly well which speaks to the engineering standards of the solar construction space and how we work with the code writers to do what is best.
Midwest Solar Utilities. First Indiana and over the weekend Kentucky and Ohio also came out with strong solar moves from the utilities. We’ve more news out of coal utilities in the past few months than before and this trend is sticking around in my opinion. Let’s keep watching this space.
Fixing Friday. I wrote that AEP was working on helping Indiana move in the right direction but was wrong about the utilities. It is NIPSCO and not AEP. AEP filed similar plans in Ohio. My apologies.

News

Have a great day!
Yann

Solar Survives Hurricane Florence’s Wrath With Little Effect

By Frank Andorka, Senior Correspondent It’s no surprise that North Carolina is the No. 2 solar state in the country. Aggressive utility-scale installation, combined with a friendly public utilities commission, have vaulted the state to the top of the list. What I’m saying is that North Carolina has earned its place among the solar elite. Which is why those of us who have watched that growth were nervous as Hurricane Florence bore down on North Carolina. Between the wind and rain, the resiliency of the state’s solar inventory would be sorely tested – and we all hoped it would come … Read More →

This is your SolarWakeup for September 21st, 2018

I hope you have a great weekend and safe travels to Anaheim. I will be there and should be at most of the nighttime activities. Please make sure to say hello. If you’re interested in meeting my Quick Mount team, you can reach out to them here.
Wheels On The Bus, Are Electric. Daimler and others are going all in on electrification of fleet vehicles. Frank has the breakdown but this story was important to me months ago when we interviewed Proterra CEO, Ryan Popple, on the SolarWakeup podcast. I remain sceptical that America wants to drive, ride or fly in Chinese transportation and that makes Proterra a vital part of the future of electric fleets in the US.
Your State Rundowns. 
Remember Hurricane Maria. Puerto Rico has come a long way and started to rebuild. Now the special interest groups are going to try and keep the island from a renewable future but I hope that won’t happen.
California. You’ll hear plenty of talk about NEM 3.0 and CALSSA needs your help to build an archest. Come to the Annual Dinner on October 12th, sponsor a few tables and bring your chequebook for the auction.
Massachusetts. Time for Baker to step in and get SMART done. The utilities have been allowed to drag this out long enough.
New York. The interesting value proposition for solar on Long Island, read the Bloomberg reporting.
Florida. See some of your friends interviewed by the Florida Channel about the Florida solar market. Good things are happening.
Indiana. AEP is out with an IRP to kill coal within 10 years, in Indiana. They must have failed to notify the Vice President of this.

News

Have a great day!
Yann

The Energy Show: The Commercial Solar Opportunity

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The Energy Show: By Barry Cinnamon There are there are three market segment for solar in the U.S.: residential, utility and commercial. Based on some rough math, in 2018 we expect to install 5 to 7 million solar panels on homes in the U.S. In areas with high residential electric rates, paybacks are usually in the range of 4-8 years. But the utility solar segment is much larger: about 20 million solar panels will be installed by utilities in 2018. Utilities realize that it is cheaper to generate power with solar compared to coal or nuclear generation. Moreover, the combination … Read More →

Proterra Electric Buses Get Enormous Boost From Daimler Investment Of $155 Million

By Frank Andorka, Senior Correspondent Yesterday will be remembered as a day when the United States got serious about transforming its aging fleet of buses from diesel-using dinosaurs into sleek new electric vehicles. That’s when Proterra, a heavy duty electric transportation provider for the North American mass transit market, announced that it has closed a $155 million investment round co-led by Daimler, the world’s largest manufacturer of commercial vehicles. In conjunction with the investment, Proterra and Daimler have entered into an agreement to explore the electrification of select Daimler heavy-duty vehicles, the first of which will be Damiler’s Thomas Built … Read More →

This is your SolarWakeup for September 20th, 2018

SEIA Growing Support Through Diversity. Yesterday, SEIA announced an MOU with the HBCU action coalition to work to increase diversity in the solar industry. Solar does a good job of measuring its workforce statistics and this is a great way to acknowledge the need to improve on diversity. The broader piece is that solar is sometimes put into a rich suburban bucket and through community solar and low-income goals, SEIA is working to garner more support across the spectrum and that helps us all.
California Universities Go Solar. On the university topic, you may want to go back and see the story from Frank that the UC system is going all in on renewables. This isn’t a long-term goal either, this is 100% by 2025. You may recall my interview with UCLA great, Bill Walton, and our message to the PAC 12 attendees that universities should go all in on solar and do so quickly. Maybe they listened to us after all!
Argentina, Here’s The Thing. This doesn’t surprise me given that I had to deal with some projects in Brazil just a few years ago. In some markets, you have to make your investment decision based on the length of time that the current government is in power. Anything that overlaps multiple governments or has a longer-term payback, then you must be ready to gamble on stability in routinely unstable settings. That being said, when things don’t work, it’s a great time to take a jab and wait it out just like it happened in Brazil.
The Kids. Kids in Illinois get it. Solar is the future.
Hurricane Tested. We don’t have all the data yet but some installations are starting to look like they were engineered to withstand storms like Hurricane Florence. Having been involved in the installation of projects in North Carolina, I tend to be more worried about the flooding that is currently happening than the wind during the storm. While the storm water management plans for solar were difficult and thorough, the pictures I’ve seen may end up being worse than the code planned for. The Quartz report does highlight residential projects looking good after the storm.
Tickets. Have you gotten your ticket to SolarWakeup Live! yet? We are adding Thom Byrne, CEO of CleanCapital, to the agenda. This type of insight and learning can only be found at SolarWakeup events so get your ticket now at solarwakeuplive.com

News

Have a great day!
Yann

(Stephen) Moore’s “Law” Fails When Facts Are Fake

By Frank Andorka, Senior Correspondent If you have followed conservative political thought at all over the past 30 years, you’re familiar with Stephen Moore. Currently a senior fellow at the conservative think tank The Heritage Foundation, Moore has been around since he was the president of the anti-tax group Club For Growth (which is not, as it is often mistaken for, a hair replacement club). Now at the Heritage Foundation, his voice resonates with far greater reach and allows him to land his particular free market gospel at places like Creators.com, which is where I found his most recent screed, … Read More →

SEIA, HBCU To Partner With Aim Of Diversifying Solar Workforce

By Frank Andorka, Senior Correspondent On the year anniversary of releasing its first-ever diversity report, the solar industry’s largest association – the Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA) – announced it is partnering with the Historically Black Colleges and Universities Community Development Action Coalition (HBCU-CDAC) to improve the industry’s recruitment efforts in minority communities. During Solar Power International last year, SEIA and The Solar Foundation released the findings from its diversity survey, a hard and honest look at where the industry stood in terms of reaching non-traditional solar audiences like blacks, Hispanics and other minority communities. It also looked at how … Read More →