By Frank Andorka, Senior Correspondent What Happened: Vote Solar is lending its voice to a coalition of 27 organizations in California that are fighting to move the state to a 100% clean energy future. Yesterday, one of solar’s most active advocacy groups announced the launching of the organized campaign in support of California Senate Bill (SB) 100. If SB 100 passes, it would move the renewable energy goalposts again (in a good way), raising the renewable portfolio standards from 60% to 100%. Besides Vote Solar, the coalition also includes the Union of Concerned Scientists, the Natural Resources Defense Council, the Sierra … Read More →

By Frank Andorka, Senior Correspondent What Happened: Bloomberg looked into southeastern states like Georgia, South Carolina and Florida and discovered, by golly, those states LIKE solar now. In other news, water is wet. According to the report, states have been reluctant to add solar because of the cost was too high. Bloomberg looked at the recent explosion of solar installations in Florida, Virginia and South Carolina to reach its conclusion (and oddly left out North Carolina for some reason). SolarWakeup’s View: OK, I know I should let Bloomberg off the hook for this one. After all, they don’t write about solar full … Read More →

By Frank Andorka, Senior Correspondent What Happened: Yesterday, the Arizona Supreme Court ruled that homeowners that lease rooftop solar systems do not have to pay state property taxes on that home improvement. The court found that since the homeowners don’t own the “electrical generation facilities,” they have earned a state property tax exemption It refused, however, to offer an opinion on whether counties could levy property taxes on the solar arrays. The case stretches back to 2013, when the state’s Department of Revenue, with the support of APS (the state’s largest utility), decided it could collect property taxes on the arrays. … Read More →

By Frank Andorka, Senior Correspondent What Happened: In a move the surprised many, the Arizona Corporation Commission (ACC) told APS, the state’s largest utility, to get more of its electricity from renewables instead of natural gas. The plans presented by APS submitted to the commission planned to add 5.3 GW of natural gas generation by 2032. In contrast, APS planned to add only 183 MW of renewables to the portfolio. The commissioners, who are sometimes accused of being too chummy with the utility they regulate, told APS unequivocally to stop fooling around and add more renewables to their generation portfolio. SolarWakeup’s … Read More →

By Frank Andorka, Senior Correspondent What Happened:  Yann Brandt sat down with Blake Jones and Terri Mickelsen, the driving forces behind the Colorado-based Clean Energy Credit Union (CECU), which they expect will: provide loans to people who want to invest in products like solar installations, electric vehicles, energy efficiency and other similar investments. give new clean energy markets another financing option. It’s also important to note the CECU is a federally insured credit union, where advocates and enthusiasts can put their money and feel good about how their money is being used. SolarWakeup’s View:  I can’t believe someone hasn’t done … Read More →

By Frank Andorka, Senior Correspondent What Happened:  A debate, started by SolarWakeup founder Yann Brandt, has been joined over this simple question: Where should community solar be slotted in the U.S. Solar Market Insight report? Currently, the Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA) and GTM Research categorize community solar as part of the commercial & industrial segment for report purposes. Yann Brandt, on the other hand, believes the location of the system is more important than the offtaker, which would instead put the majority of community solar projects in the utility category. SolarWakeup’s View:  If you were coming to this article … Read More →

By Frank Andorka, Senior Correspondent What Happened:  The burgeoning South Carolina solar industry is being debated in the state’s legislature, with two conflicting bills offering significantly different visions of its future. The utilities are at again (by which I mean lying) about a cost-shift to reduce how much the utilities pay solar customers under net metering A second bill would remove a 2% cap on how much solar utilities have to accept, a measure designed to expand the industry” Meanwhile, solar advocates worry that Dominion Energy’s attempt to buy the parent company of South Carolina Electric & Gas (SCEG) could … Read More →

By Frank Andorka, Senior Correspondent What Happened: Earlier this morning, SunPower filed its formal request to be excluded from the Trump Administration’s 30% tariff on imported solar modules, specifically Exclude solar cells based on copper-plated, IBC technology. Exclude solar modules based on copper-plated, IBC technology. Make the product exclusions described above retroactive to Feb. 7, 2018 (when the tariffs went into effect) and direct U.S. Customs and Border Protection to refund any tariffs paid on the above-described products. SolarWakeup’s View:  All we can say is that it’s about time. SunPower, a module manufacturer and one of the staunchest opponents of tariffs … Read More →

  By Frank Andorka, Senior Correspondent What Happened: Microsoft, in an interview with Greentech Media, explained why it was turning to approximately 60 MW of distributed solar to power its data centers in Singapore. Essentially: The company said it had been burned before when it tried to build utility-scale solar projects in other countries, thanks to permitting issues and other local constrictions. The limited land in Singapore to build a large-scale solar plant left them with one option that the city-state has in abundance: rooftop space. SolarWakeup’s View: Microsoft, which doesn’t even appear on the Top 10 Businesses for solar … Read More →

By Frank Andorka, Senior Correspondent What Happened: Controversial Kentucky House Bill (HB) 227 passed the House by four votes yesterday. Now the bill moves on to the Senate. It would Reduce the amount future Kentucky solar customers are paid under its net metering plan, based on A mythical cost shift from solar users to non-solar users (or, as I refer to it, the “lie that won’t die.” SolarWakeup’s View:  This damn thing again? If you’ve been paying any attention to the broader solar news cycle, you’ve heard of Kentucky HB 227. It’s the latest attempt by utilities to kill an emerging … Read More →