New Study: Forget About Carbon Capture. Let’s Clean Up Solar Manufacturing

By Frank Andorka, Senior Correspondent To continue powering the United States with coal without adding any adverse climatalogical effects, 89% of the United States would have to be covered in forest, according to a new study from the Michigan Technological Institute. The study compared that route – interesting but ultimately futile – with the idea of shifting electricity generation to solar power (now you’re talking) and figuring out how to sequester the carbon produced in the solar manufacturing process instead (a much more manageable task). [wds id=”3″] (Kudos to the press release writer who put this subhead into the press … Read More →

London And New York Mayors Say Cities Must Divest From Fossil Fuels In Guardian Op-Ed

By Frank Andorka, Senior Correspondent Over the weekend, two of the world’s most influential mayors – Bill de Blasio (mayor of New York City) and Sadiq Khan (mayor of London) – took to the pages of the British newspaper The Guardian to urge cities around the world to divest from companies that extract fossil fuels. The op-ed came ahead of the Global Climate Action Summit, a gathering of world leaders designed to discuss issues surrounding climate change and other environmental issues. The summit starts on Wednesday in San Francisco. [wds id=”3″] The mayors wrote: We believe that ending institutional investment … Read More →

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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Have a great day!
Yann

Report: New Jersey Community Solar Program Could Spur $800 Million In Economic Benefits

By Frank Andorka, Senior Correspondent Vote Solar released the results of its analysis of New Jersey’s planned 450 MW community solar program, in which it found the program could spur as much as $800 million in economic development. Specifically, the report says the community solar program will create: 1,778 sustained full-time jobs during construction and an additional 41 sustained full time jobs associated with operations and maintenance. $414.7 million in earnings for those employed. $797.9 million in local economic benefits for the state, excepting local tax revenues. $3.3 million from property tax revenues in the first year alone. [wds id=”3″] … Read More →

New Mexico Relieves Its Solar Consumers From Unfair, Untenable Fee

By Frank Andorka, Senior Correspondent Saying the fees were arrived at using flawed studies and without taking into account the advantages that solar customers bring to the grid, the New Mexico Public Resources Commission eliminated Rate 59, a fee previously charged only to solar customers and cost them, on average, $300 per year. The New Mexico PRC also said it would start a rulemaking proceeding to ensure that the state law concerning solar surcharges was followed in future. At issue was the charge levied by Southwestern Public Service, the state’s largest regulated utility. [wds id=”3″] As Vote Solar reported: In … Read More →

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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Have a great day!
Yann

Duke Energy Requests Temporary Retail Net Metering Revival In South Carolina

By Frank Andorka, Senior Correspondent Duke Energy is asking the South Carolina Public Services Commission to reinstate retail net metering until a compromise can be reached on raising the current 2% cap, an issue that has roiled the South Carolina solar industry over the past 12 months. The utility has joined a group of solar stakeholders to extend the net metering program through March 15, which they allow time for the development of long-term recommendations through the ORS-led collaborative process and for legislative consideration of any consensus recommendations, including any recommendations related to future net metering policies or programs. [wds … Read More →

Private Equity Firm Raises Nearly $1 Billion For Clean Tech Investements

By Frank Andorka, Senior Correspondent A hundred million here, a hundred million there, and suddenly you’re talking real money. And that’s the kind of real money that Energy Impact Partners, a utility-backed investment fund, has raised to invest in clean tech. $681 million, to be exact. Bloomberg reports that Energy Impact Partners, backed by such utility giants as Southern Company and National Grid, are looking to invest the money in startups that are doing clean tech research, looking for the next big breakthrough. This is in addition to the the $200 million the fund has already invested in companies like … Read More →

The Energy Show: Solar Monitoring – the Most Common Solar Problem

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The Energy Show: By Barry Cinnamon This week’s Energy Show is for solar power customers, contractors and inverter manufacturers who appreciate the need for reliable solar power systems. Surprising as it may seem, most solar monitoring systems are simply not up to the reliability standards of the panels and inverters they support. The good news is that solar monitoring problems almost never affect system performance. Monitoring failures may indicate an inverter problem, but the panels and inverters are almost always working properly. In reality, the problem is with the communications somewhere along the chain – including the inverter, inverter gateway, … Read More →

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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Have a great day!
Yann