This is your SolarWakeup for March 3rd, 2022
Opinion
News
1 Politico:
Dems agonize over Manchin's wish list - Taxes, prescription drugs, climate cash
2 Utility Dive:
Biden touts charging network expansion in State of the Union amid 85% jump in 2021 US EV sales
3 Bloomberg:
Solar Rally Halted as First Solar Sees Lingering Supply Woes
4 Axios:
Ford creates business unit for electric cars
5 PV-Tech:
Mining giant Peabody enters solar, eyes 4.9GW of solar and storage in next five years
6 Energy Storage News:
Greenbacker and Aypa Power acquire US battery storage projects
Opinions:
7 PV-Magazine:
Participate in the Solar Jobs Census 2022
Have a great day!
Yann
This is your SolarWakeup for March 2nd, 2022
Opinion
News
1 Reuters:
EXCLUSIVE Apollo targets $50 bln in sustainable investments with new platform
2 White House:
President Biden to Highlight Clean Energy Manufacturing and Deployment Investments that Cut Consumer Costs, Strengthen U.S. Energy Sector, and Create Good-Paying Jobs
3 Utility Dive:
Utilities urge Supreme Court to dismiss challenge to EPA's fleetwide carbon emissions approach
4 Politico:
Ukraine presses Biden, senators to hit Russian energy exports
5 Axios:
Operator of Nord Stream 2 files for bankruptcy and fires all employees
6 Bloomberg:
After 139 Years of Coal Mining, Peabody Expands Into Solar
7 Canary Media:
Investors poured more than half a billion into solar software in the last week alone
Opinions:
8 PV-Magazine:
US EV battery manufacturer demonstrates 750+ mile range, raises $65 million
Have a great day!
Yann
This is your SolarWakeup for March 1st, 2022
Opinion
News
1 Utility Dive:
Texas regulators direct utilities to file emergency operations plans
2 Axios:
Shell ends partnerships with Russia’s Gazprom after Ukraine invasion
3 Reuters:
Germany to speed renewables push due to Ukraine crisis
4 PV-Tech:
US solar generation up 25% in 2021, renewables’ share of power mix set to exceed coal in 2022
5 Energy Storage News:
Zinc battery storage player Eos claims ’18 month pathway’ to positive margins
Opinions:
6 PV-Magazine:
Auxin antidumping case “an affront to the industry” said SOLV Energy CEO
Have a great day!
Yann
This is your SolarWakeup for February 28th, 2022
Opinion
News
1 Axios:
BP will divest stake in Russian oil giant Rosneft
2 Bloomberg:
Buffett Gives Successor Abel Rare Page Space for Sustainability
3 New York Times:
Supreme Court Will Hear Biggest Climate Change Case in a Decade
4 PV-Tech:
US residential solar platform raises US$375m for business expansion
5 Solar Power World:
Solar advocates push for passage of Massachusetts grid-planning bill
6 Energy Storage News:
Capacity Market contracts awarded to more than 2GW of battery storage in UK and Italy
7 Canary Media:
Which states will win out on $9.5B in federal clean hydrogen funding?
8 PV-Magazine:
US targets 5 million community solar households, $1 billion in savings by 2025
Opinions:
9 Utility Dive:
Texas just dodged a repeat of 2021 outages, but its power sector has a long way to go, analysts say
Have a great day!
Yann
This is your SolarWakeup for February 24th, 2022
Opinion
News
1 Solar Power World:
LG to exit solar panel manufacturing and close Alabama plant
2 Utility Dive:
Duke may offer some EV customers 'all you can charge' for just $19.99/month (restrictions apply)
3 Reuters:
U.S. to hold its biggest offshore wind auction
4 PV-Magazine:
Polysilicon price reaches $39.3/kg — the highest since 2011
5 PV-Tech:
China expected to add up to 99GW of solar PV every year through 2025, Europe now its largest export market
6 Energy Storage News:
Diverse energy storage market segments, tech and applications will drive growth to accelerate decarbonisation
Opinions:
7 Axios:
How the Russia-Ukraine crisis will affect U.S. energy prices
Have a great day!
Yann
This is your SolarWakeup for February 23rd, 2022
Moving Fast. The macros are moving faster than the market and the headline stated what we’re looking at. With the aggressions in Ukraine going in the wrong, the already inflated cost of gas in Europe is driven up by the halting of the Nordstream 2 pipeline. Inflation always hits energy hard, as seen by record consumer costs at home and at the fuel pump. The higher costs do bring about revenue streams for renewables that could make up the labor, supply chain and cost increases that the market has seen. With gas in a less reliable supply position, increased development in renewables continues to be inevitable.
The Future Of Trackers. Most solar farms are installing trackers which is a good thing for production but it causes harder design considerations especially outside of the square format of desert land plots. One of those innovations comes in the form of articulating tracker designs by companies like Nevados that allow for trackers to be installed uneven terrain more common in markets across the US.
Electrification Of Fleets. The electrification of transportation remains one of the most dynamic changes in how energy is stored, transported, and used. Covid complicated the trend by eliminating the known of where most Americans are going to be during the day, removing the known knowns of energy peaks at offices during the day and home peaks in the morning and evening. Electrification of fleets in car rental, bus depots and companies will change how suppliers approach the infrastructure that allows those fleets to keep moving.
News
1 New York Times:
Russia's Moves in Ukraine Unsettle Energy Companies and prices.
2 PV-Magazine:
Solar tracker manufacturers can expect a boom in the US through 2025
3 Utility Dive:
After renewable energy installations dipped in 2021, industry renews call for clean energy package
4 Bloomberg:
Texas Emerges as Solar’s Next Frontier as Power Demand Booms
5 Axios:
Germany halts Nord Stream 2 certification over Russia's actions
6 PV-Tech:
Inovateus Solar receives capital investment to expand its solar development and EPC services
8 Energy Storage News:
Guidehouse - Residential batteries’ market share to equal gensets by 2030
Opinions:
9 GreenBiz:
Why Hertz is betting its future on electrification
Have a great day!
Yann
This is your SolarWakeup for February 21st, 2022
Installers First, Always. Over the past year, the team as CommonBond has worked to understand how to make lending for solar installers easier, faster and cheaper. That culminated in the public announcement that CommonBond has started serving the solar market and wants you, the installer, to learn more about the offerings that are available. To learn more about the CommonBond platform and products, contact them here.
News
1 Wall Street Journal:
America’s Power Grid Is Increasingly Unreliable
2 Utility Dive:
Load growth, retiring fossil fuels creating 'urgent need' for new electric resources in the Southwest - Report
3 Energy News Network:
Illinois muni and co-op members want in on state’s solar boom
4 Bloomberg:
Brookfield Spurned in $14 Billion Plan to Close Coal Plants
5 Axios:
Southwest megadrought
6 Energy Storage News:
Utility-scale energy storage in US tripled in 2021 while growth of other clean energy stalled
7 PV-Magazine:
Program for low-income housing authority solar assistance finds success in pilot, set to expand
Opinions:
8 Canary Media:
What are the hurdles to electrifying a home? Contractors and experts weigh in
Have a great day!
Yann
This is your SolarWakeup for February 18th, 2022
Installers First, Always. Over the past year, the team as CommonBond has worked to understand how to make lending for solar installers easier, faster and cheaper. That culminated in the public announcement that CommonBond has started serving the solar market and wants you, the installer, to learn more about the offerings that are available. To learn more about the CommonBond platform and products, contact them here.
News
1 Energy Storage News:
FlexGen launches EV charging solution with integrated energy management, battery storage
2 Axios:
Scoop - Bipartisan senators to rebuke Biden on solar tariffs
3 Bloomberg:
How the Supreme Court Could Decide Biden’s Climate Future
4 Utility Dive:
Bitcoin mining as a grid resource? 'It's complicated.'
5 PV-Tech:
AT&T signs virtual power purchase agreements for 155MW of US solar
6 Solar Power World:
Schneider Electric acquires solar marketplace EnergySage
7 PV-Magazine:
NREL launches 100% renewables study for Puerto Rico
Have a great day!
Yann
This is your SolarWakeup for February 17th, 2022
Faster Approvals Equals More Deals. Installers asked CommonBond to create the fastest approval process in the market and they delivered. To add CommonBond’s fintech DNA to your solar sales process, apply here.
News
1 The Verge:
Renewable energy growth in the US lags far behind Biden’s climate ambitions
2 Bloomberg:
China’s Clean Energy Dominance May Face Challenge in Batteries
3 Axios:
Biden to reverse Trump-era California auto emissions rollback
4 Reuters:
Australia's biggest coal-fired power plant to shut in 2025
5 RMI:
Reality Check - The Green Inflation Myth
6 Solar Power World:
Trade policy, supply chain pains postponed 11.4 GW of utility-scale renewables in 2021
7 Energy Storage News:
California Public Utilities Commission approves
Opinions:
8 PV-Magazine:
Crossing EV barriers with microgrids and managed charging
Have a great day!
Yann
This is your SolarWakeup for February 16th, 2022
Merchant Solar? Not The Whole Story. From here on out, merchant solar doesn’t mean the same thing as it did in the past. It used to mean that the solar project had a secondary revenue stream like SRECs, carbon credits or production based incentive that drove the financial model and the energy value was secondary and not really relied upon. The reason that merchant solar doesn’t work without the control of generation is that a market would adapt to a solar farm that has no ability to control when it produces and exports, i.e. the marginal cost of producing the second electron is zero dollars. When an IPP says they are doing merchant solar, they mean that they are doing solar plus storage, producing when possible and exporting when valuable. Merchant solar isn’t about taking whatever they can, it means building a generating asset without adding a contracted buyer to the project before building the project.
Recasting The Forecast. It’s a reoccurring theme on SolarWakeup, forecasts come up short. Solar forecasts have been notoriously understated and energy storage is even worse. There are market segments where storage and solar are contemplating major growth, that have a zero GWh forecast in the major analyst reports. So take those with a grain of thought and look at your own market, pipeline and sentiment to guide your investments. In other words, believe in yourself and your market.
Installers First, Always. Over the past year, the team as CommonBond has worked to understand how to make lending for solar installers easier, faster and cheaper. That culminated in the public announcement that CommonBond has started serving the solar market and wants you, the installer, to learn more about the offerings that are available. To learn more about the CommonBond platform and products, contact them here.
News
1 PV-Tech:
Photon Energy posts record revenue, eyes merchant solar opportunities
2 Washington Post:
Sea level to rise one foot along U.S. coastlines by 2050, government report finds
3 Vox:
Why electric vehicles are so hot in the 2022 Super Bowl ads
4 Bloomberg:
Wind and Solar Power Demand Expected to Soar
5 Solar Power World:
Clean energy trade groups ask FERC to reform interconnection process
6 Energy Storage News:
‘Supply chain constraints, logistical challenges’ but Enphase battery sales still drive increased revenues
7 Canary Media:
Green steel without green hydrogen — can it work?
8 PV-Magazine:
CleanCapital acquires 65MW solar portfolio spanning 12 states
Opinions:
9 RMI:
Are We Ready for Another Uri?
Have a great day!
Yann
