This is your SolarWakeup for October 17th, 2016
An interesting study about the ‘duck curve’ in California is out over the weekend from consulting firm ScottMadden. The point that intrigued me was the impact on the duck curve came from utility scale solar and not distributed resources. The data that creates this conclusion is the difference between the system load and net load. The duck curve is clearly visible in the net load but the system load is far more in line with the total load. More analysis should be done on this but if there continue to be more reports to this effect, solar may have additional information to use during net metering debates.
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Yann
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.
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Yann
This is your SolarWakeup for October 14th, 2016
I judge people by what they do, not what they say and I call it like it is. When companies were unfairly attacking net metering, I wasn’t worried about my advertisers, I let you know they were doing it. If SEIA wasn’t vocal enough about ITC, more than 10,000 of you signed a SolarPledge to push for a vocal and public support of the ITC extension. My point is, that right now SEIA is being asked to do more on net metering. So judge for yourself. The top story today is about unfair charges for solar customers in Illinois. Illinois isn’t a blockbuster solar State, yet, but here is the President of SEIA placing an OpEd in the State’s largest newspaper. If you want to make a difference, put yourself out there and make a difference. If you can’t find the action within you, get out of the way, we have gigawatts to deploy.
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Yann
This is your SolarWakeup for October 13th, 2016
The vote for approval of the merger is set. SolarCity is going to the shareholders on November 17th and will ask to become part of Tesla. Tesla lays out the the acquisition, an all stock deal, where the SolarCity shareholders will end up owning 6.9% of the combined companies. Tesla asks the shareholders to vote FOR the acquisition. We shall see how that all works out in just a few weeks. Also look at the article today that talks about solar in Texas, and how it will affect the daytime generation values given that solar prices in the as available markets and always clears first. Cheap gas, wind power and solar will make the free markets in Texas fun to watch.
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Yann
This is your SolarWakeup for October 12th, 2016
11 years ago, Vice President Gore gave the commencement address at my graduation and after a brief story about sitting at Shoney’s restaurant, Al Gore gave a speech about climate change. Keep in mind that in 2005, solar, wind and climate change were far from mainstream and surely not on this college graduate’s mind. 6 months later I found myself searching for a way into the solar industry and here I am 10 years later. The reason I bring this up is because yesterday, Secretary Clinton said what we have all been saying. Renewable energy and climate change are a central decision point in this election. In atypical fashion, Secretary Clinton was an opening speaker, as she welcomed VP Gore to the stage, in Miami, just a few miles from my home. This election has evolved to say the least but for me renewable energy is the main point I bring up to any undecided voter. So ask yourself the question posed by David Crane, “What are you doing for the next four weeks?”
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Yann
This is your SolarWakeup for October 11th, 2016
I came away from the debate with only one thought. How amazingly shortsighted can Donald Trump be when he brings up Ohio’s coal workers? Ohio is a must-win for the Trump campaign and the coal talk is strong in the GOP but Ohio was a rapidly growing solar market until June of 2014. At that time, Governor Kasich signed a 2 year freeze for the State’s RPS bringing SREC values to near zero values. Even with the headwind, solar jobs outpace coal jobs by nearly 60% and will grow to double the coal sector this year. Imagine if the GOP looked at the polling regarding solar support and Governor Kasich actively sought to train more coal workers in solar. Read my full story on the topic here
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Yann
Why Trump Shouldn’t Worry for the Coal Workers in Ohio
According to The Ohio Coal Association, there are 3,000 coal workers in Ohio. Their jobs are in jeopardy in a State that gets 69% of its energy from coal and is the 4th largest consumer of coal in the Country. So the question is why are their jobs in jeopardy and what is the policy answer to the problem?
by Yann Brandt, Managing Editor According to The Ohio Coal Association, there are 3,000 coal workers in Ohio. Their jobs are in jeopardy in a State that gets 69% of its energy from coal and is the 4th largest consumer of coal in the Country. So the question is why are their jobs in jeopardy and what is the policy answer to the problem? In the last policy question of the second Presidential debate, Ken Bone asked, “What steps will your energy policy take to meet our energy needs while at the same time remaining environmentally friendly and minimizing job … Read More
This is your SolarWakeup for October 10th, 2016
That debate was a disaster and made a Nevada/Arizona net metering hearing look normal. In all of the discourse we miss a debate on what Americans agree on like having more solar on the grid, giving consumers more choice, etc. Interestingly more utility front groups have come up recently to engage in the debate about solar energy and how subsidized it is. What I would like to discuss is how regulated monopolies have a misalignment with consumer choice and costs. I would like to talk about hedging of fuel cost curves that are used to build fossil power plants. In the next decade the energy debate will center around consumer choice, that’s the discussion that I want to have.
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Yann
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 October 7th, 2016
Update on the hurricane situation is positive, the South Florida region has been spared from the worst of the storm. So short of the loss of production today due to less than optimal conditions, everything is back to normal tomorrow. As I was waiting for my power to go out, I gave a lot of thought about adding storage to my house. Given that I have 70kWh already in the driveway, the easiest solution is still the car but I know we are not quite there yet. I’d love to understand the policy implications of load shifting solar in residential setting. Clearly the ratepayers benefit, it eliminates a massive amount of infrastructure required for the grid and consumers make an investment for themselves that also benefits the community. On the other hand, less infrastructure is required and less ratebase is required to be invested in. I call this a misalignment of interests but maybe someone else can clue me in on what I am missing.
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Yann