Solar, Wind Are Quickly Becoming Preferred Electricity Generation Worldwide

By Frank Andorka, Senior Correspondent A new Deloitte Global report, “Global Renewable Energy Trends,” indicates solar and wind are becoming the preferred electricity-generation sources worldwide. There are three key reasons for the increase: price and performance parity with fossil fuels; better grid integration infrastructure and improving technology. In other words, solar and wind are now cost-competitive with fossil fuels and are delivering the same performance. As that continues (and other technologies like blockchain come into play), Deloitte expects the trends to continue. “Demand for renewable energy sources has grown tremendously in recent years,” says Marlene Motyka, Deloitte U.S. and global … Read More →

The Energy Show: Climate Change – Time To Start Panicking

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The Energy Show: By Barry Cinnamon These days you can’t watch TV, read a news story or listen to the radio without seeing catastrophic fires, hurricanes, and high temperatures. The world is getting hotter. To illustrate, Death Valley recorded the hottest month ever recorded on Earth. Temperatures averaged 108.1 degrees day and night, all of July 2018. That beat last year’s record monthly temperature. This is not just a U.S. only story, it’s a worldwide issue. During the month of July 2018 record high temperatures were set on every single continent in the northern hemisphere (it was winter in the … Read More →

Report: Utility Scale Solar Procurement Surged, Residential Solar Steadies in Q2 2018

By Frank Andorka, Senior Correspondent Though the overall solar market declined in Q2 of 2018, there was good news to be had in the utility-scale and residential sectors. Those are the headlines from the Q2 U.S. Solar Market Insight Report from the Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA) and Woods MacKenzie Power & Renewables (WKPR) (formerly GTM Research). As some predicted, the decision by the Chinese to halt their domestic market sent component prices into a nosedive, which allowed the utility-scale solar market to procure nearly 8.5 GW of solar in the second quarter. Lower than expected tariffs – starting at … Read More →

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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Have a great day!
Yann

Vote Solar Comes Out In Favor Of Tom Steyer’s Arizona Proposition

By Frank Andorka, Senior Correspondent Vote Solar announced today that it and the Arizona small business community have come out behind Proposition 127, a ballot initiative that would enshrine a 50% renewable portfolio standard (RPS) by 2030. Arizona’s current RPS is 15%. Prop 127, backed by progressive billionaire Tom Steyer, has been mired in controversy as the state’s three largest utilities – Arizona Public Service (APS), Tucson Electric Power (TEP) and the Salt River Project (SRP) – have all funded political action committees to oppose the proposition. APS even brought a lawsuit challenging the signatures on the ballot petitions, a … Read More →

Report: Renewable Sources Will Power 80% Of Electricity Generation By 2050

By Frank Andorka, Senior Correspondent According to the latest DNV-GL Energy Transition Outlook 2018: Power Supply and Use report, renewable energy will power approximately 80% of electricity generation by 2050, with the majority of that surge coming from wind and solar. As prices for the technology continue to drop, DNV0-GL is predicting that 40% of all electricity generation will come from solar sources, while 29% will come from wind. [wds id=”3″] What’s more, the report suggests rapid electrification will continue to become a higher percentage of energy use, reaching 45% by 2050, with particular increases occurring in the transportation, building … Read More →

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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Have a great day!
Yann

Arizona Rejects Tucson Electric Power’s Grid Access Fee For Solar Customers

By Frank Andorka, Senior Correspondent It’s not often that I get to write something positive about the Arizona Corporation Commission (ACC). For those of you who have followed my work over the years, we’ve had a…contentious relationships at best. Typically, I’m writing about something I view as skullduggery, and the commissoners (particularly on Twitter) have felt compelled to take on a writer from a little-known solar trade publication. But today is not one of those days. Today, I’m taking my hat off to the ACC for rejecting a grid access charge proposed in 2015 by Tucson Electric Power (TEP) that … Read More →

California Governor Must Sign SB 700 To Make SB 100 A Reality

By Frank Andorka, Senior Correspondent Something magical happened in California yesterday. Governor Jerry Brown signed into law SB 100, which takes the state’s renewable portfolio standards (RPS) to 100% by 2045. Imagine that. The world’s fifth-largest economy is now on its way to getting 100% of its electricity from non-fossil-fuel sources within the next 30 years. If you had suggested such a thing even seven years ago, when I first joined the solar industry, people would have called you insane (or worse). But now that it’s done, it’s time to complete the circle and get the governor’s signature on SB … Read More →

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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Have a great day!
Yann