These are the top 10 most read solar articles by your peers this week!
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The Top 10 is ranked by the number of SolarWakeup.com readers that clicked on the news article during the previous week. It is the poll of the most relevant solar news of the week as judged by your colleagues and competitors.
Have a great day!
Yann
This is your SolarWakeup for November 23rd, 2016
Demand charges dropped. Start of some big news in Illinois where all day negotiations between the Governor’s office and Exelon resulted in a deal framework. The mandatory demand charges will be dropped from the bill that will keep the nuclear power plants open at least another decade. Final legislative language just started circulating and there is an expectation that net metering will be kept largely intact with the existing 5% cap which is almost untapped, but some changes could be required. We’ve been speaking with the participants and will continue to update as news unfold.
Trump changes his tune. In an on the record meeting with New York Times yesterday, Trump was asked about climate change with a follow up from ‘Years of Living Dangerously’ host Tom Friedman. His answer is more in line with a non-political Trump. He wants clean air but above all, it cannot affect the competitiveness of domestic manufacturing. Industry should continue to reach out and educate how solar is economically attractive today and going forward with no increased fuel costs. So while he may dismantle the Clean Power Plan, most goals have already been met on a national level as Politico points out.
An island goes solar. A good project with great video production, that’s something I can really get behind. Tesla replaced diesel generators on an island in American Samoa with 1.4MW and 6MWh within a microgrid to give the island 3 days of autonomy instead of using nearly 110,000 gallons of diesel per year. Watch the video, I’ve shared it with my family and they all asked the same question. If you can do that, why aren’t we doing it everywhere?
Loans keep going bigger. Research is showing that loans are going to surpass leases and if you look at SolarCity’s data you can see it happening in that microcosm as well. One provider, Mosaic, is adding another facility to its war chest in order to get installers the money they need. In many ways, you are seeing a distributed network of installations happening by decentralizing the network as well.
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Yann
Illinois Energy Bill Makes Progress – Demand Charges Are Dropped
Senate Bill 2814 introduced during the regular session came back during the latest special session with a new amendment, House Amendment 2. This amendment had multiple objectives but the primary one is a mechanism to keep two nuclear power plants in operation. The two plants, Clinton Power and Quad Cities, were announced to be closed on June1st 2017 and 2018, respectively. The Zero Emission Standard is the vital part of the bill that Exelon has stated would allow the plants to remain in operation. The bill also includes a fix of the renewable portfolio standard and energy efficiency investments, both … Read More
This is your SolarWakeup for November 22nd, 2016
SCTY is delisted. It is official, SolarCity shareholders are now owners of Tesla shares. The stock has stopped trading and will be delisted as the merger is complete. Congratulations to all involved that overcame what seemed like long odds throughout the process. The official document here.
Solar communities. Community solar is clearly on the rise, but still some ways away from residential solar. NREL is out with a report outlining that community solar now works in a vast majority of States. Community solar has advantages, being able to overcome contract length and credit issues and at the same time giving flexibility for people that sell their home or are renters.
Downward module pressure. Canadian Solar is the latest solar company to announce its issues with pricing expectations over the next year. While large, the market is also softening in some areas and is also well supplied by module manufacturing capacity. Canadian is no stranger to getting into other channels like development. Expect all module manufacturers to look for ways to get into the US market even with the pressures.
The Enel Yieldco. It is known but not often advertised the Enel has a drop-down vehicle with GE. Now GE is acquiring the 1% of the JV that will make it a 50/50 venture which already holds 1.2GW of various power assets, namely solar, wind, and hydro. No other financial terms were released.
NC market woes. Duke Energy, which controls the vast majority of the State’s energy supply, wants some changes to the rules. These requests have been made in the past but this time they are in the shadows of the longest list of interconnection requests the company has ever had. Rules for those interconnection requests also appear to be changing on the fly. A large player in the State, FLS which was recently acquired by Cypress Creek, is currently suing a Montana Utility through FERC for changing PURPA rules. Watch this trend.
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Yann
The Merger Is Complete, Tesla Owns SolarCity
The deal is done. Tesla has officially acquired SolarCity. After months of speculation, Wall Street questions and doubts that this day would come, it is done. SolarCity will stop trading and the ticker symbol SCTY is gone, delisted from the exchange. No more information about the integration has been released except for the $150 million efficiencies that would be created by combining the companies. So expect some job cuts and introduction of the solar system sales to the hundreds of Tesla stores around the Country. Consumers will be able to get their solar, stationary storage and moving storage (the car) … Read More
This is your SolarWakeup for November 21st, 2016
Tesla’s roofing dreams. We all saw the presentation about Tesla’s solar shingles and the solar industry answered with great skepticism. The roofing industry doesn’t seem too eager to weigh in quite yet. DOW recently pulled the plug on its solar shingle probably writing down a good amount of investment. Musk makes a new goal public; the solar tile will be cheaper than a non-solar roof even without the energy production. Unless he is comparing to French slate material, he is clearly mistaken because it is doubtful that there is a technical potential for solar to be cheaper than asphalt shingles.
Taking the Terraforms. Brookfield and Appaloosa have upped their pressure to take over Terraform Power and potentially Terraform Global. They proposed to acquire the shares at $13/share which is near their current value. If TERP enters into the agreement before December 6th, they yieldco will not have to make another creditor payment.
FERC goes for storage. A new proposed rulemaking process was started by FERC that focuses on storage and demand response. Public comment is now open but the goal is to allow storage to participate in wholesale energy markets. Another market for storage is positive, now is time to create more wholesale markets.
Illinois goes Christmas shopping. Apparently, legislators call 500 page bills a Christmas list because there is something for everyone. One legislator called this bill a $24billion rate hike because it goes to save the nuclear power plants similar to New York. The solar industry is united behind the opposition for this bill because of the indiscriminate demand charges placed on solar customer’s bills.
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Yann
These are the top 10 most read solar articles by your peers this week!
News
The Top 10 is ranked by the number of SolarWakeup.com readers that clicked on the news article during the previous week. It is the poll of the most relevant solar news of the week as judged by your colleagues and competitors.
Have a great day!
Yann
This is your SolarWakeup for November 18th, 2016
TeslaCity Is Here. To the tune of 85%, shareholders voted to overwhelmingly to let Tesla buy SolarCity. We will await further details on how the integration and timing around the final acquisition will take place. Solar roof shingles are apparently coming summer of 2017, I will make some calls to the roofing industry to see how they feel about that.
Kerry goes to COP22. Outgoing Secretary of State Kerry is in Morocco speaking at COP22. A mission that was probably planned to be different ended in a message by Kerry. Move slowly and with eyes wide open before dismantling the work this administration has accomplished. The US is now committing to reducing CO2 emissions by 80% by 2050, and I can guarantee that in 2050 we will look back in horror that we had not done more in 2016.
Future of Solar. Yesterday we published a list of 7 people that Trump should consider for Secretary of Energy. Today, Richard Matsui from kWh Analytics warns the industry that solar should be wary. Yes, it is 2016 not 2012, but there are tightening margins and constricting global markets. Cutting costs is key to your business in solar.
Nevada continues. A small and underreported (surprisingly not pitched by both sides) PUC hearing is happening in NV. Net metering is being debated by the commission NV Energy and stakeholders for a small section of the State.
Amazon goes solar baseload power. AWS is doubling (quintupling actually) down on solar for its data centers. EDF is making another great case today that we need to think beyond baseload power because you know, it’s the 21st century and we have data. Think about it, don’t you think that AWS knows exactly how much power they want/need/produce on a minute by minute basis?
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Yann
Solar’s Future May Not Be Pre-Ordained
For virtually everyone who cares about climate change, the election of Donald Trump precipitates an unprecedented crisis. The Paris climate agreement, an extraordinary commitment to global cooperation by more than 200 countries to dramatically curb carbon emissions, is now in grave danger. The Clean Power Plan is almost certainly dead. Our domestic politics are failing us, the world, and future generations yet unborn. There has been much commentary in the last week that despite the shift in political winds, that solar remains a bright spot (see: “Trump Can’t Stop the Energy Revolution” and “Trump Can’t Stop The Clean Economy”). … Read More
This is your SolarWakeup for November 17th, 2016
Next Secretary of Energy? We’ve got your list. The list of people that President-Elect Trump should consider for DOE. This isn’t a political assessment it is an assessment for the type of person that can be successful within the administration and inspire private sector innovation. Let’s remember, the energy sector is an enormous wealth creation market with a trillion dollar opportunity. Follow the money, open the markets and the private sector will thrive on economics and value to the consumer.
Distributed rate design. NARUC finalized its DER guide for rate design at their annual meeting. Both SEIA and Vote Solar came out with positive outlook for the report which amongst other things outlines that 19 States have published reports saying that there does not appear to be a cost shift for distributed solar.
Series 6 focus. First Solar formally announced that it was scrapping Series 4 manufacturing expansion and planned Series 5 roll out in favor of going straight to Series 6. The reason is simple, it brings First Solar’s modules in line or ahead of crystalline in terms of efficiency. The company is going to reduce its workforce by 27% (1,600 people) and write down between $500-$700million. I don’t see this as bad news, this is a focus on cost reduction and creating margins on a value proposition. More solar companies should focus on that, especially the $150million in profits last quarter.
Let the market work. You are going to hear a lot about letting markets work from this outlet. When we talk about demand charges, solar fees, or rate design, remember that if the market has the right pricing signals then the consumer will be able to figure out what they need, when they need it and how much they are willing to pay. Illinois is doing it wrong in my opinion, no need for indiscriminate demand charges and handouts for power plants. Fix the valuation for the power market instead.
Larger grids = greater value. EDF makes a point that needs to be talked about more. The electric grid needs to start connecting to neighboring systems. PJM which goes from Illinois to North Carolina and New Jersey which allows for all sorts of fuels to compete in a regulated competitive market.
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Yann