This is your SolarWakeup for March 25th, 2024
Slower, Faster Or As Expected. Every headline these days is about energy demand, even old statements are recirculating the internet. On a personal level, I am not sure that we are going to be meeting the moment. There is no doubt that power plants are reaching the end of their 3rd or 4th lives, coal plants from the 60s and 70s are still operating. Plants will have to retire and many of them will repower if the economic case can be made for it. That leaves a big hole in the generation side which we absolutely need to make up with all of the solar and wind that can get built. This means more interconnection throughput and faster paths to offtakes across the geographies that need the energy. Demand side changes must also be met with regulatory flexibility, particularly in data centers. As society advances with our ever growing desire to stream everything and how fast the growth in AI will impact everyone’s everyday lives, data centers are the center of that possibility. So here’s the big question for you, do you think the overlap of retirements of generation meeting demand for new power is coming at us slower, faster or as expected in forecasts?
News
1 Bloomberg:
From AI to Oil, Demand Dominates the Talk in Houston
2 Axios:
Americans' average commute distance, mapped
3 Reuters:
Europe's top utility to invest $45 billion with focus on US grids
4 PV-Tech:
Primergy signs ‘long-term’ PPA with San Diego Community Power for solar-plus-storage project
5 Renewable Energy World:
SunPower gets Nasdaq deficiency notice for late filing
6 Solar Power World:
IRS further defines energy community qualifications for IRA credit
7 Energy Storage News:
EU Batteries Regulation ‘will force energy storage industry to think more about end of life’
8 Heatmap News:
Suburbia Is the Real Battleground for Electric Cars
9 PV-Magazine:
IRA clean energy projects to create 30,000 North Carolina jobs, $10 billion to GDP
Opinions:
10 Wall Street Journal:
Rivian’s Delivery Van - Not Just for Bezos Anymore
Have a great day!
Yann
This is your SolarWakeup for March 22nd, 2024
Opinion
News
1 PV-Magazine:
California cuts interconnection costs for distributed solar developers that agree to export limits
2 Bloomberg:
EVs Are Much Lower-Emitting Than Combustion Cars
3 Utility Dive:
Granholm tells Congress ‘adjustments have been made’ to distribution transformer proposal
4 PV-Tech:
Iberdrola to invest US$17 billion in renewables by 2026
5 New York Times:
High Winds Fuel Wildfires in Virginia and Other Mid-Atlantic States
6 Renewable Energy World:
DOE launches $10M funding opportunity for interconnection solutions
7 Energy Storage News:
DOE - US energy storage pipeline up 300% since Inflation Reduction Act passed
8 Heatmap News:
The EPA's Final Auto Emission Rules Are Out
9 Canary Media:
Ohio greenlights massive solar, storage and agrivoltaics project
Opinions:
10 Reuters:
Biden's softer climate regulation shows big US bet on subsidies to decarbonize
Have a great day!
Yann
This is your SolarWakeup for March 21st, 2023
Opinion
News
1 Utility Dive:
Electrifying US trucking could cost nearly $1 trillion - Study
2 Axios:
Tensions between phaseout advocates and oil titans on display in Houston
3 PV-Magazine:
Booming U.S. energy storage installation grows 90% year-over-year
4 New York Times:
Biden’s Climate Law Has Created a Growing Market for Green Tax Credits
5 Bloomberg:
KKR, EIG to Invest $1 Billion in Solar Developer and Projects
6 Reuters:
Germany looks at special account for $488 billion power grid expansion
7 PV-Tech:
Chinese companies supplied half of US PV modules in 2023
Opinions:
8 Heatmap News:
Why Moving to 24/7 Clean Electricity Is Going to Be Really, Really Hard
Have a great day!
Yann
This is your SolarWakeup for March 20th, 2023
Opinion
News
1 New York Times:
Biden’s Climate Law Has Created a Growing Market for Green Tax Credits
2 Utility Dive:
New England could see resource adequacy troubles even with billions in investments
3 Bloomberg:
UAE’s Masdar to Buy 50% Stake in US Renewables Firm Terra-Gen
4 Axios:
Gas execs sees tailwinds from AI power needs
5 Reuters:
Equinor spends $6 billion a year to keep Norway oil, gas steady, CEO says
6 Energy Storage News:
Bulgaria gets tenders for 350MW of energy storage alongside 1,425MW renewables launched
7 Canary Media:
Data centers, bitcoin and EVs send utilities scrambling for more power
Opinions:
8 PV-Magazine:
IRENA says world needs 1.1 TW of renewables per year
Have a great day!
Yann
This is your SolarWakeup for March 19th, 2023
Reconciling The Obvious. It’s too early to say that we have a problem, but it’s too late to ignore the problem as much as we are. Largely due to two factors, operators, regulators and politicians are not up in arms about the fact that our energy use will be far larger than our energy generation in a much small time frame than expected. First, we’ve never really faced this problem before. Energy consumption went up at the rate of economic growth and in a very predictable fashion. Mornings and nights at home and day time at the office while everyone filled up their cars at the gas station. Second, power plants didn’t retire at the speed as they are going to because we’ve been extending them beyond their useful life and the plateau on energy consumption has been steady for a few decades. Package that with our replacement generation being variable in nature (for the most part), we have an operational challenge ahead for us that must not be ignored. Fixing the interconnection queues, getting more generation built and then adding markets for resilience, especially fast response, is key for keeping the lights on. Just look at the top two headlines, 58GW of retirements and massive AI data center build out, and you’ll see the problem as well.
UK Postcard. The UK just made some market changes that are having a memorable effect on the storage build out in the Country that is something that every storage owner and investor needs to consider for the future. By expanding the market and adding new products, asset owners need to now adjust their preforms and cycle management. How is their state of charge? Are they compliant with the new rules and how will they manage their augmentation? All of that to say, if they don’t have a digital solution in place to make and continue to adapt to those changes, they will either lose out on revenue, underuse their system or augment their site at the wrong time. When these events occur is the right time to reset the proforma internally and adjust the system by switching the EMS or adding additional data analytics capabilities to the system. More to come on this…
News
1 Utility Dive:
Up to 58 GW faces retirement in PJM by 2030 without replacement capacity in sight
2 Bloomberg:
AI Driving US Power Growth Forecast by 81%, NextEra Says
3 Axios:
View from Houston - CERAWeek's competing visions
4 Reuters:
China's Longi to cut nearly one-third of staff, Bloomberg News reports
5 Heatmap:
8 Down-Ballot Races That Could Shape America’s Climate Future
6 PV-Tech:
FTC Solar reports financial stabilisation following leadership change
7 Energy Storage News:
Great Britain’s battery fleet dispatching 47% more energy after changes brought in by ESO
8 Canary Media:
Utah developer quadruples battery storage to meet new electricity demand
Opinions:
9 PV-Magazine:
Can anything topple lithium-ion?
Have a great day!
Yann
This is your SolarWakeup for March 18th, 2023
Cheap Solar Panels, Winners and Losers. It’s always been the dilemma, cheap solar panels from Asia hurt the domestic manufacturing build out. On the other hand, imagine the lowest scenario, if solar panels were free then consumers and tax payers would benefit from cheaper PPAs (energy cost) and value of tax credits. I don’t know the right answer but the same is true for anything we import really. Imagine Amazon.com only selling domestically manufactured goods or Walmart. Nobody is saying all solar panels should be made here, I would welcome that, but there’s also an economic upside to it as well. I’d love to hear more thoughts on this from you all, how do you reconcile cheap solar panels?
News
1 Axios:
U.S. "tracking" to unveil new climate targets this year
2 Utility Dive:
First Solar CEO warns senators of ‘collapse’ in solar cell, module pricing
3 Associated Press:
Across the US, batteries and green energies like wind and solar combine for major climate solution
4 Bloomberg:
India Lowers Import Tax on EVs to Lure Players Like Tesla
5 Reuters:
Poland to spend $16 billion on power grid by 2034
7 Renewable Energy World:
New Oregon rules aim to streamline interconnection
8 Canary Media:
Inside the right-wing conspiracy to thwart the clean energy transition
Opinions:
9 PV-Magazine:
Solar can help with marijuana’s green problem
Have a great day!
Yann
This is your SolarWakeup for March 14th, 2023
Sea Of Suits. If there is one legacy left behind from the solar industry, it’s the 3,500 navy blue suits that come together at the Infocast Solar + Wind (And Storage) Conference in Phoenix. For the veterans, this is the old Rancho Bernardo conference. It was great to catch up with so many of you that I haven’t had the pleasure of seeing in so long. It’s incredible that our industry drives this level of collaboration and investment, representing the $50billion market that we all created in 2023 and will continue to grow.
News
1 Utility Dive:
US electricity prices outpace annual inflation
2 Politico:
Here comes $20B in climate finance
3 PV-Magazine:
Power Electronics plans 20 GW inverter factory in U.S.
4 Bloomberg:
US to Offer Record Loan for Lithium Americas Project in Nevada
5 Axios:
Biden targets freight emissions in infrastructure push
6 Financial Times:
US solar manufacturers in ‘dire situation’ as imports soar
7 Reuters:
E.ON hikes grid investments to $46 billion, gives bullish outlook
8 Renewable Energy World:
Pathways to procurement - Where public EV charging meets utilities
9 Energy Storage News:
Inflation Reduction Act doing well versus EU Green Deal because of ‘how easy it is to understand’
10 PV-Tech:
Sol Systems bags US$250 million for 189MW Illinois PV project
Opinions:
11 Canary Media:
Four ways virtual power plants can help the US grid keep up with demand
Have a great day!
Yann
This is your SolarWakeup for March 13th, 2023
Opinion
News
1 Utility Dive:
Storage was solar’s co-star in 2023, a record-breaking year for both - American Clean Power
2 Axios:
U.S. widens its lead in fossil fuel production
3 Reuters:
Excelsior Energy sells solar assets from inaugural fund to BlackRock
4 Bloomberg:
Puerto Rico Power Authority’s Planned ‘Turbo’ Bonds Seen as Blueprint for Utilities
5 PV-Magazine:
A look at the great transformer shortage affecting U.S. utilities
6 Renewable Energy World:
White House - Good-paying clean energy jobs are on the rise
7 PV-Tech:
BrightNight and ACEN to develop 1GWac renewables portfolio in the Philippines
8 Solar Power World:
Shoals patent infringement complaints continue way through courts
9 Energy Storage News:
EU ‘stepping up its game’ on battery gigafactories in Europe
Opinions:
10 Grist:
The IRA has injected $240 billion into clean energy. The US still needs more.
Have a great day!
Yann
This is your SolarWakeup for March 11th, 2023
Politics And Pursuit Of None. I agree with Invenergy’s founder, Michael Polsky, that renewable energy would be better off without politics but the same could be said about most industries. Energy on the other hand is one of the most regulated industries because they are monopolies for most Americans and the trillions of dollars that exchange hands. So let’s agree that the energy markets will never exist without politics. Then agree on the next reality that is that in order to survive, grow and thrive, renewable energy markets need to win the politics of every moment. Not enough CEOs in our industry prioritize the public policy aspects of their jobs and the resources that need to be leveraged in order to advance our causes. We’ve come far, SEIAs budget is like 300x what it was 25 years ago for example and the public’s support of solar and storage is exceedingly high but when it comes to the regulators at local, state and federal levels, we are outnumbered by the incumbents that live in the nuance that is regulatory policies.
Subscribe. As you walk around the Biltmore this week in Phoenix, I thank you for telling your colleagues about SolarWakeup. If this newsletter was forwarded to you, you can subscribe at solarwakeup.com
News
1 PV-Magazine:
The top five states for solar deployment in 2023
2 Axios:
What Biden's State of the Union revealed about his climate plans
3 Wall Street Journal:
He’s a Renewable-Power Billionaire, Not an Environmentalist
4 Utility Dive:
Federal lawmakers urge FERC to adopt ‘shared savings’ incentive for grid-enhancing technologies
5 Bloomberg:
China Coal Group Says Peak Demand Imminent as Clean Power Grows
6 Reuters:
Off-grid solar has the potential to transform healthcare delivery, so why is it in short supply?
7 PV-Tech:
Solar manufacturers responsible for module recycling in EU
8 Energy Storage News:
Developer NatPower claims 60GWh UK BESS plans
9 Canary Media:
Chart - US smashes record for climatetech investment in 2023
Opinions:
10 Renewable Energy World:
Renewable energy industry reacts to Joe Biden’s State of the Union address
Have a great day!
Yann
This is your SolarWakeup for March 8th, 2023
Phoenix Infocast. I’m coming back! I’ll be in Phoenix on Monday and Tuesday for the Infocast Solar + Wind conference. Would love to see many of you again, if you’re going reach out and say hello. Especially if you’re looking for some support on your energy storage projects!
News
1 Washington Post:
Amid explosive demand, America is running out of power
2 Bloomberg:
Solar Panels Spread Across America's Heartland as Farmers Chase Stable Returns
3 S&P Global:
ISO New England forecasts about 3.5 GW solar output decline during April solar eclipse
4 Utility Dive:
MISO proposes up to $23B transmission expansion with 765-kV ‘highway’
5 New York Times:
Live Updates
6 Axios:
Podesta touts Biden's climate law, lays out COP29 vision
7 Reuters:
US solar wafer build stutters as Chinese surplus bites
8 Energy Storage News:
Regulator in Germany approves TSO Amprion’s decentralised grid booster BESS
9 Heatmap News:
Bitcoin Has a Feel-Good Energy Story
Opinions:
10 PV-Magazine:
Policy recommendations to support U.S. rooftop solar installation
Have a great day!
Yann
