This is your SolarWakeup for April 12th, 2018

See You In Charlottesville. I’m not the only one leaving town (I see you Paul Ryan). I’m on my way to Charlottesville to moderate a panel on solar investments and financing at the Tom Tom Festival. Let me know if you are in town for this.

Shame In SC. I thought  60-40 victory in the SC House would mean that a mild solar win for the industry was safe. BUT never underestimate the power of greedy monopolies, especially in Southern States. Using some crazy legislative tactics, the utilities got the House to reconsider the matter AND requiring a 2/3 margin to pass. This failed to happen and the bill died, for now, costing SC around 3,000 jobs. These jobs won’t come back in the nuclear industry, after that $9billion boondoggle, but hopefully legislative leaders will see a way to fix this. Frank and local news on the topic.

Monopoly Regulations. More on the topic of what monopolies should be allowed to do later but since SC happened, I’ve been giving a lot of thought to the legislative power investor owned monopolies have through their lobbying. A monopoly is given to a private corporation for the public good, to have a responsibility to serve the consumer in the best way possible for key markets, energy being one. Having that privilege should come with restrictions, especially around influencing politics and participating in competitive markets that they could have an unfair advantage in. I believe, and most consumers would agree with me, utilities should be prohibited from lobbying and should be treated like non-profits that are only allowed to educate. No political fundraising or underhanded legislative tactics should be allowed by someone that already has 100% market share.

The Energy Show With Barry Cinnamon. Is now available on SolarWakeup. His latest episode about microgrids is here. We are excited to have Barry join the SolarWakeup community as we continue to grow and look forward to hearing his podcasts going forward.

More Murray Quotes. Another gem from Murray, saying “People will die in the dark” if coal goes away. Quite the opposite, no more mining accidents and cleaner air will mean society lives longer and solar will keep the lights on.

The Quiet Bus. If my kids could ride the Tesla electric bus, they definitely wouldn’t want me driving them to school. I discussed the school bus route with Proterra’s CEO in this podcast.

News

Have a great day!
Yann

The Energy Show – What are Microgrids?

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The Energy Show, a podcast by Barry Cinnamon is now available on SolarWakeup We call our power system an electric “grid” because it is composed of a network of wires that move the power around from node to node – basically a combination of power sources (natural gas power plants, solar farms, nukes), wires (long distance transmission lines and local distribution utility poles) and controls. Microgrids are the same concept but on a much smaller scale. One example of a microgrid is a complex of buildings on an island. The power plant on an island has historically been a diesel … Read More →

Jigar Shah Speaks On The Future Of U.S. Solar, And He’s Optimistic

By Frank Andorka, Senior Correspondent What Happened: Jigar Shah talked with GreenBiz writer Lucy Kessler to discuss how taxes and tariffs are going to affect the future of the solar industry. In the interview, he argues the “sky is falling” mentality the solar industry has surrounding President Trump’s ill-advised tariffs on imported modules is counterproductive and overblown. He also believes that while the tax-code changes may slow tax-equity financing in solar temporarily, the dust will settle once everyone understands the details of the law. SolarWakeup’s View:  Ever since I joined the solar industry in 2011, the name Jigar Shah has … Read More →

Utility Monopolies Screw SC Solar After Sneaky Shift On Bill

By Frank Andorka, Senior Correspondent What Happened: Damn, that was cold – although you have to admire solar’s opponents in South Carolina for employing an obscure legislative sleight of hand to kill a bill that would have eliminated residential net metering caps. After the utilities raised all holy hell about how removing net metering caps would COMPLETELY DESTROY THEIR BUSINESS RIGHT NOW, the cowards in the South Carolina House of Representatives reclassified the bill as a tax increase, which mean it needed a 2/3 majority instead of a simple majority. So…solar advocates in South Carolina can kiss the expected industry … Read More →

This is your SolarWakeup for April 11th, 2018

What Energy Future Do You Want? Sunrun has been busy this week. CEO, Lynn Jurich, has authored a report that asks the question we already know the answer to, what should be the default scenario for utility investments going forward? Do we rebuild the century old poles, plants and wires or focus on distributed generation in smart energy systems? For Sunrun, and others, the hope is to get consumers upset at the status quo and expect a newer, better system. My hope is this report makes it into the mainstream, it’s lengthy but simple enough to be understood by those outside of our industry. Here is the report

My Convergence Thesis Is Coming True. Solar is a vital part of the EV revolution which means that as the energy sector seeks new generation caused by automobile OEMs building more EVs, the two sectors will come together into one. Your utility, solar contractor, auto manufacturer and energy IPPs will all serve the same market. Look to the latest move at E.ON as a BMW board member joins the supervisory board.

Energy, Carbon, And Baseload. I didn’t watch the BNEF Summit live, just reading the twitter coverage makes me realize how we are still stuck in the past in so many ways. Wind and solar development are causing our energy grid to get cleaner (and cheaper) but holding back the replacement of fossil based plants is delaying the inevitable. I get that Tom Fanning and Rick Perry make for nice names to have at a conference but I don’t understand having Bob Murray the coal magnate at the NEW energy finance summit.

More On Murray. He has some funny commentary about his oil and gas colleagues. Sub-tweet is the fact that he’s showing who is true enemy is and what really killed coal.

Unrated Credit. As a reminder to you, each afternoon Frank writes up the story you found most interesting in that day’s SolarWakeup email. The story that gets the most clicks gets a follow up. I spoke with CleanCapital’s President, Jon Powers, about what the raise means to the company and how it advances C&I solar.

News

Have a great day!
Yann

C&I Snags $250 Million To Expand Sector Breadth

By Frank Andorka, Senior Correspondent What Happened: Greentech Media reports that the commercial/industrial (C&I) sector now has $250 million in new money to purchase operational assets, thanks to the efforts of CleanCapital and CarVal Investors, the investment arm of industrial giant Cargill. According to GTM, CleanCapital has purchased mroe than $100 million in distributed generation projects in the past several years. focusing entirely on the C&I sector. The money will also allow CleanCapital to increase its focus on segments such as energy efficiency, storage and new construction solar. SolarWakeup’s View:  OK, I must admit I was mildly confused by Greentech … Read More →

What Would Consumers Choose? (Solar. They Would Choose Solar.)

By Frank Andorka, Senior Correspondent What Happened: Sunrun has produced a consumer-friendly report called Affordable, Clean, Reliable Energy, which asks the ever important question: What would consumers choose for their own electrical production? In a delightfully readable format, Sunrun’s CEO Lynn Jurich posits that given a choice between a distributed-generation, renewable-energy based electrical system and the traditional fossil-fuel based one, consumers would choose the former. She also forcefully lays out the case for solar as a job generator and calls for an end to the “war on solar” (now there’s a woman who knows how to use catchy slogans). Lastly, … Read More →

This is your SolarWakeup for April 10th, 2018

Big Florida Solar News. We’ve got some original news for you that is staying under the radar and it’s big. Everyone around solar knows that Florida is not a fan of allowing third parties to participate in Florida when it comes to financing solar projects. Sunrun has decided that now is the time to move forward and figure out how strong this prohibition is. The company quietly filed for declaratory judgement on their lease product at the PSC, asking the commission to basically allow them to conduct business without being considered a utility. The hearing is in a few weeks and if it passes could open up the Florida market for large scale growth that isn’t solely held by the incumbent monopoly. The story here.

BNEF Summit, Loop. It seems that Rick Perry and Tom Fanning are staples the BNEF Summit in New York. It’s a safe place for them which is the give and take for conference organizers. (If you don’t question their talking points, they won’t come) Rick Perry made the interesting comment that we [America] doesn’t want a free market in the energy sector. Maybe he means that literally but its a far cry from the ERCOT system in Texas he is used to. Perry did say that he doesn’t think 202 emergency declaration makes sense for the First Energy case but that he wants those plants to continue operating.

Big C&I Money, BUT Credit. CleanCapital has raised $250million of capital for projects to build a $1billion portfolio from CarVal Investors. If this capital is going to scale in C&I, then they’ll have to figure out how to drive volume and driving volume means figuring out how to do repeat transactions with unrated credits. My friends at CleanFund are growing commercial PACE that may have a way of helping that scale and leverage come together, wonder if they’ve spoken because more C&I solar is great for everyone, more on that tomorrow.

Solar Pays For Nuclear. Southern’s CEO, Tom Fanning, was also at BNEF Summit in New York yesterday. He mentioned that the future of Southern is carbon free with renewables, clean gas and nuclear. Vogtle is a nuclear plant that is still being supported by the regulators and consumer’s money but Southern needs more money. How do they get that extra money? They are selling a third of their solar portfolio! Who knew that solar investments can be so flexible.

More Solar In Mass, Need Money? I’m excited about the MA market going forward. More solar is needed especially with the power plants on track to close near to Boston. SMART development is starting up but it’s costly. If you are looking for development capital, let me know, there are investors eager to partner with you and your projects. (And I need to send my kids to summer camp)

News

Have a great day!
Yann

Massachusetts Moves To Make Energy Data More Transparent

By Frank Andorka, Senior Correspondent What Happened:The Rocky Mountain Institute reports Massachusetts might be on the verge of starting another American Revolution, at least when it comes to promoting transparency in its citizens’ energy use. Governor Charlie Baker has proposed An Act Relative to Consumer Access to Residential Energy Information, which would create energy-use certificates that would be used to record energy-use evaluations for the state’s homes. It would give Massachusetts homeowners information that would allow them to do a serious evaluation of their home’s energy use. And starting in 2021, people trying to sell their homes would be required … Read More →

Sunrun Could Start Operating In Florida In Earnest Within A Month

By Frank Andorka, Senior Correspondent What Happened:Sunrun is now one step closer to being able to operate without unreasonable restrictions after the staff of the Florida Public Utilities Commission (FPUC) has recommended that: Sunrun’s residential solar equipment lease does not constitute a sale of electricity; Offering its solar equipment lease to customers in Florida will not cause Sunrun to be deemed a public utility under Florida law; The residential solar equipment lease described in its petition will not subject Sunrun or Sunrun’s customer-lessees to regulation by the Commission. SolarWakeup’s View:  It’s been a good year for Sunrun so far. Last … Read More →