This is your SolarWakeup for October 5th, 2023
Learn The Term, IBRs. That’s inverter based resources and NERC has it’s displeasure with how well they handle grid imperfections. I mentioned this would come to the headline a few months ago and now there’s some coverage. So now expect more specification, requirements of the inverters for the solar and battery projects that you’re building, investing in and owning. It also means, as the story explains, that projects need to be commissioned more carefully and operated with real-time capabilities so that a single asset doesn’t take down an entire grid.
Managing Installer Cash Flow. Interest rates are the highest in 22 years, increasing solar financing costs and softening consumer demand for loan products. Businesses are feeling the pain of strained cash flows, labor costs and profitability pressures. Palmetto, a B2B technology company accelerating the adoption of clean energy, has announced a new partnership offering for solar installers to help stabilize cash flows and grow faster in today’s market. Built on top of Palmetto’s Clean Energy Operating Platform, this is a comprehensive suite of tools and services enabling installers to streamline operations, optimize performance, and increase profitability. Visit https://www.palmetto.com/finance or contact capital@palmetto.com for more.
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Yann
This is your SolarWakeup for October 4th, 2023
Everyone Loves Solar. A new University of Maryland poll shows us once again that solar is popular, 75% of Americans support development of solar farms in their community. 87% for Democrats and 66% for Republicans. That’s as good of a bipartisan issue as you can find, especially in today’s DC.
A Manufacturing Conference. In 2012, the keynote at SPI said the US was a beneficiary in development, finance and structuring of solar deployment made possible by the lowering of costs of solar modules. Modules cost about $1/watt then, down from $4/watt. Every since, we’ve chased the elusive solar manufacturing complex here at home. Now we have a conference focused on manufacturing, that’s pretty good!
You Make A Battery, They Make A Battery. With the inventory of brands making residential storage boxes, you have to imagine the competition to get into the installers and distributors is fairly stiff. Distributors care about the following in my experience, cost of the product compared to other options, terms provided by the manufacturer for the inventory and pull through by the installer. With cost of capital at a multi-decade high, this is going to put some real pressure on the balance sheets of the manufacturers of these boxes and likely cause many of them to go direct, which is a challenge for shipping costs, credit and gaining share one installer at a time. The real benefit is options create competition for the long tail, my favorite segment of solar installer!
Managing Installer Cash Flow. Interest rates are the highest in 22 years, increasing solar financing costs and softening consumer demand for loan products. Businesses are feeling the pain of strained cash flows, labor costs and profitability pressures. Palmetto, a B2B technology company accelerating the adoption of clean energy, has announced a new partnership offering for solar installers to help stabilize cash flows and grow faster in today’s market. Built on top of Palmetto’s Clean Energy Operating Platform, this is a comprehensive suite of tools and services enabling installers to streamline operations, optimize performance, and increase profitability. Visit https://www.palmetto.com/finance or contact capital@palmetto.com for more.
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Yann
This is your SolarWakeup for October 3rd, 2023
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This is your SolarWakeup for October 2nd, 2023
Win The Win And +. Not everyone is aware that SEIA is heading into board of directors elections and unfortunately, the current chair, George Hershman, is termed out. After 4 years at the helm alongside Abby Hopper, George helped guide the association through unique times to say the least. Having spent the last year and a half serving as the chair of the energy storage division, I can see how the prioritization of the association has put us in a position to lead on many issues as the issues never really stop. From Covid times to the IRA passage, SEIA has been in the middle of the discussion in and around DC.
Hardware Needs Good Software. Yesterday’s announcement from Apple hits close to my daily business life. The iPhone 15 was getting hot, the kinds that makes it physically unable to be touched. The reason for the iPhone malfunction wasn’t the processor or battery but the software that enables the hardware to do what it was supposed to do. Unlike solar panels, that are activated by sunlight, the entirety of a battery storage system is enabled by the software that runs it. Whether it works, and how well it works, is determined by the operating system specified by the asset owner. So just like Apple, don’t overlook this step in your next storage project.
Managing Installer Cash Flow. Interest rates are the highest in 22 years, increasing solar financing costs and softening consumer demand for loan products. Businesses are feeling the pain of strained cash flows, labor costs and profitability pressures. Palmetto, a B2B technology company accelerating the adoption of clean energy, has announced a new partnership offering for solar installers to help stabilize cash flows and grow faster in today’s market. Built on top of Palmetto’s Clean Energy Operating Platform, this is a comprehensive suite of tools and services enabling installers to streamline operations, optimize performance, and increase profitability. Visit https://www.palmetto.com/partners or contact capital@palmetto.com for more.
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Yann
This is your SolarWakeup for September 29th, 2023
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This is your SolarWakeup for September 28th, 2023
My World’s Collide. Some ten years ago a friend of mine took me to a boat auction, where dealers were buying repossessed boats and I was hooked. Living in South Florida, it’s hard to separate water from everyday life so I made a small investment that built one of the largest boat dealers in Fort Lauderdale. As a side effect, I tend to go to the boat show every year and while most of it is about the newest (read bigger) model that the same manufacturers put out, there’s always some new thing including some boats that had an electric/solar component. Mostly those were gondolas, or a solar powered dinghy with a 5hp trolling motor. But reading this article about an electric wakeboarding boat makes me long for the quieter lake days, wakesurfing until the sun goes down. We’re not going to electrify the marine industry but this thing could actually work and I love to see it. My electrification/battery/boat worlds colliding in 2023, that’s pretty damn cool. P.S. don’t worry about charging infrastructure for boats, shore power has been a thing for a very long time.
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Yann
This is your SolarWakeup for September 27th, 2023
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This is your SolarWakeup for September 26th, 2023
Hot And Cold Cause Problems. Heat waves spike demand but it’s the cold that is showing stressers on generation that the grid withstood on the heat opposite this summer. FERC is concerned about the resilience of generation in multiple ISOs, with the latest PJM report from Winter Storm Elliot sparking new questions. 90GW of generation failed to deliver its dispatches which has a ripple effect on the rest of the stability. Speaking of stability, ERCOT underestimated the grid demand by 4GW this weekend, which almost sparked another emergency as that operator has been running a rather lean reserve.
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Yann
This is your SolarWakeup for September 22nd, 2023
Climate Week Thoughts. It’s climate week in NYC, an event I’ve never attended but it’s always full of news for those of us interested in the headlines. The arguments have changed a bit, early days centered around what’s possible, what technology is ready for primetime and how much subsidy would be available. Today, we’re arguing what date of impact we should target, i.e. shifting the EV requirement from 2030 to 2035 in the UK. Without much debate, I would say that progress has manifested a real transition to electrification. Now, the collective we, need to focus on making it all work within the grid and keep the grid operational. We’ll talk about how NERC feels about some of that next week.
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Yann
This is your SolarWakeup for September 21st, 2023
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