South Carolina Sends Solar Soaring With Cap Removal

By Frank Andorka, Senior Correspondent What Happened:Solar electricity wracked up an enormous victory in South Carolina yesterday when the House of Representatives eliminated the prevailing net metering caps on residential installations. But don’t spike the ball too early: The issue now goes before the state’s Senate, where the debate is expected to be just as contentious as it was in the lower chamber. . Yes, the utilities are trotting out the cost-shift fabrication again – but I won’t spend too much time on it right now because I’m in a celebratory mood. SolarWakeup’s View:  Maybe South Carolina is sick and … Read More →

New Jersey Solar Industry Receives Much-Needed Win

By Frank Andorka, Senior Correspondent What Happened:The New Jersey legislature got about the business of undoing former Governor Chris Christie’s treachery when it came to the solar industry, passing two companion bills out of committees in the House and Senate that would fix Christie’s mischief by increasing the state’s RPS and create a community solar program. On his way out the door, Christie “pocket-vetoed” a bill that would have increased the state’s RPS, a move the state’s solar industry says is desperately needed to maintain its strength as a market. Now, under a governor who has unceasingly pledged his undying … Read More →

This is your SolarWakeup for April 6th, 2018

Here’s your rapid fire rundown of the top news. Enjoy your weekend!

SC Shifts To Solar. Great job to all fighting in South Carolina and getting a legislative victory. Had the sentiment of old school Arizona and Nevada. Look for coverage from Frank later today.

Consumer Choice In Solar. CleanChoice Energy isn’t the biggest retail energy provider but it gets solar better than most. Don’t underestimate this team. Here’s my interview with CEO, Tom Matzzie, from a few months ago.

LePage Needs To Go. Unable to overturn Governor’s veto once again, solar is stagnant in Maine. I guess we’ll need LePage to go away to fix this.

Really? It’s Not Necessary. Nuclear is a no emission source of energy but to think it’s still needed in the next phase of the energy transition is misguided. Time to plan a future without it, California is.

Go Forth Nevada. The legislature tried to increase the RPS last year but fell a bit short. We talked to Assemblyman Brooks about this, time to try again!

Offtaker Credit Issues. With First Energy’s bankruptcy filings, some of their off take agreements are also in jeopardy. This is unfortunate and stranded assets will have to be considered going forward in other off take arrangements.

Google Energy Update. Another improvement on the 100% renewable energy by the search giant. We talked to their energy director last year, Sam recently left Google and joined Lyft as the Head of Sustainability.

No More Tariffs! Please? The back and forth on trade way is continuing and it’s not good for anyone. Congress needs to step in and do something.

Unlimited Private Jets. We’ll see if Pruitt makes it to Monday but did you know that you can get unlimited jet flights for $100k per month? Who’s in on this with me?

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Have a great day!
Yann

Maine Legislature Screws Solar (Again)

By Frank Andorka, Senior Correspondent What Happened:The Maine Legislature, for the second year in a row, failed to override Governor Paul LePage’s veto of LD 1444, which would have, you know, mitigated some of the horrible changes Maine’s Public Utilities Commission is making to net metering in the state. The governor, who has made destroying the solar industry in his state an unseemly crusade, wants to tax solar out of existence so, of course, he supports the draconian rules the PUC is imposing on Maine’s solar users. Thanks to six spineless legislators – who had initially said they would vote … Read More →

CleanChoice Energy Digitizes Community Solar Sign-Up

By Frank Andorka, Senior Correspondent What Happened:CleanChoice Energy launched a much-overdue digital platform that allows customers to sign up for community solar projects in there in five minutes or fewer. “Community solar represents one of the most important opportunities to expand renewable energy access in the U.S., with the potential to reach more than 60 million households across the country,” said Tom Matzzie, CEO of CleanChoice Energy. With customer acquisition costs remaining a particular challenge for the solar industry, any chance it has to bring down those costs is a plus – and in the community solar segment, it could … Read More →

This is your SolarWakeup for April 5th, 2018

SEIA Responds. After our reporting from yesterday, SEIA responded to its Board of Directors. We felt that it was relevant for the solar industry to understand the reasoning SEIA states and are showing it to you verbatim. The key is that this topic is not finished, and the questions appears to remain on the table. While we see ourselves as more than just a copy and paste publication, we’d like to show what the solar industry thinks. If you have a view on this, please send us a comment that we could share.

Play It Out. Some of the biggest participants in the solar industry are solar groups within utilities and I heard from quite a few of you yesterday. I understand the dilemma and empathize, you are active in solar, benefit from policies like net metering and share similar frustrations as the rest of the industry. When utilities take too long to interconnect, it doesn’t benefit you and if you can’t net-meter, you can’t do the deal. But here is the problem with allowing an IOU into the fold. Take the ongoing debate in Michigan. What if DTE had a solar unit which was a member of SEIA and SEIA participated vigorously in the debate to do more solar and less rate based natural gas? What kind of pressure could DTE exert on SEIA to stay out of the proceedings and how would we ever know that it exerted this pressure? The simplest way forward for membership would be a non-voting segment for utilities but what if they are paying $100k a year to be a member? $200k?

What Do You Stand For? SEIA published goals earlier this year, albeit very modest and easily achievable. From our point of view it is time for SEIA to stand for something, much like our Solar Pledge did during the ITC extension (very effectively). The values should include all or some of the following ideals: advocating for full rate net metering without advantages given to incumbent participants, fair and equal interconnection access for solar, rate based solar should be given equal access for competitive solar proposals to ensure lowest cost. These are just some ideas but we should not be the source of those values. The SEIA membership base should set those values and use those as their advocacy constitution. More money in the revenue base should not be the only goal, and potentially blurring the lines on values is never worth the price of admission.

Trump Taxes Grow. The Trump trade war continues, this time sparing most of solar but the side effects will come into the space. Hopefully Congress will step in and stop a trade back and forth that doesn’t help American consumers.

Elections Matter. Especially at the local level if you have a utility coop board. SRP in Arizona had an election and added 2 more pro-solar members to the board, with 2 other solar supporters losing their seats. The more people run, the more support we will have at the regulatory level when possible.

News

Have a great day!
Yann

SEIA Responds To SolarWakeup’s Reporting

Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA) President and CEO Abby Hopper responded to SolarWakeup’s reporting on its courting of utilities to become members of the association in an email to its board of directors: Dear Board of Directors: Many of you have read this morning’s Solar Wakeup, which focused on our discussions about new means for working with utilities, and our deliberations on the ownership of Solar Power International (SPI). As to the SPI angle, in 2016, the board discussed options including buying SEPA out, selling to SEPA, or keeping things the same, and everything in between. After much consideration and … Read More →

Illinois OKs Long-Term Renewables Procurement Plan

By Frank Andorka, Senior Correspondent What Happened:Yesterday, the Illinois Commerce Commission (ICC) approved the state’s Long-Term Resources Procurement Plan (also known as “The Plan”), an overarching roadmap for the state to reach 25% renewable energy by 2025. The Long-Term Renewable Resources Procurement Plan arose out of the Future Energy Jobs Act of 2016. “With the approval of this ambitious plan, Illinois takes another step toward becoming a national leader in affordable clean energy. A more diverse power portfolio, which includes wind and solar, makes the grid more stable and affordable. SolarWakeup’s View:  Now that’s what’s called vision. As expected, the … Read More →

Los Angeles Tops Best Cities For Solar List (With Charts)

By Frank Andorka, Senior Correspondent What Happened:  Environment America released its list of top cities for solar development, and Los Angeles tops the list, with San Diego, Honolulu, Phoenix and San Jose rounding up the Top 5. The first “surprise” city on the list is San Antonio, which clocks in at No. 6. Other surprises include Indianapolis, which arrives at No. 8, and Albuquerque, which shows up just outside the Top 10 at No. 11. The list reads as a Who’s Who of cities with smart leadership in the administration and, in many cases, well-run municipal utilities like LADWP. SolarWakeup’s … Read More →

This is your SolarWakeup for April 4th, 2018

Moves At SEIA Misguided. Earlier this year, SEIA approached members of their board, many of whom pay for the privilege, on the idea of inviting utilities to join SEIA as members. Many of the board members that were approached called in a non-starter but the idea went high enough at SEIA leadership that it was considered worth floating. The money has become more important to the association than the mission or its values in my opinion. I had to ponder what it meant to have the idea get enough support from leaders to discuss. In line with this new line of thought was the extension of the SEPA joint venture which produces SPI and in 2015 generated over $3.5million in profits to the owners. SEPA is focused on making utilities smarter with their energy systems, it’s not a solar association and in my opinion the values between the two entities no longer align enough to have the joint venture continue, alas it was renewed by the board. What’s next for SEIA in its search for what it stands for and what does that mean for you and its mission going forward? Here is Frank’s exclusive look inside. If you have an opinion on this, I’d love to hear it, please reply to this email and let us know what you think.

SC Solar Push. Hundreds of solar advocates took the fight in South Carolina to the Statehouse steps yesterday. Being this is South Carolina, this was not a partisan fight and focused on the jobs. You could have taken the signs from the protestors in Nevada and used them here which speaks to our message and focus. With the failed nuclear power plants plaguing the political discussion, solar could be the ideal outlet for economic development.

Solar In 2008. Do you remember solar in 2008? What information and advice do you wish you had then that you have today? Storage is like solar in 2008 is the trendiest buzzword in storage conversations but much of that is true. Financing products, innovation for consumers and lead gen are all topics. This article does a good job of going through some of the important issues.

Small Solar In Africa. Africa is such a great opportunity for solar and for the people to enjoy greater access to energy. Small solar upstarts have done a tremendous job growing their companies and deploying with great impact. The other side of that is large scale solar which displaces some of the most ingrained industries in the market and requires offtakers and regulators to work hand in hand, presenting new and different investment issues. I hope Africa does it all, small and large while also doing things like solar power street lights to improve the infrastructure.

SolarWakeup Live! Less than 1 week before we meet in San Francisco. There are some seats left for you to hear from some of the Bay area solar leaders. I hope you will join us for the afternoon. Reserve Your Seat.

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Have a great day!
Yann