This is your SolarWakeup for October 18th, 2021
It Was A DC Long Game. You read about it here when Gina McCarthy stood in front of the White House and said that the Clean Energy Program (a federal RPS type policy) was a dealbreaker. McCarthy and many of the White House operatives knew how Manchin and others felt about this and how energy policy is largely managed by States. The same is true for the $3.5trillion price tag, you shoot high and then get ready to deal and this weekend, we finally got to the dealmaking phase when Manchin told the White House that he wouldn’t support the CES in the reconciliation bill. Energy Twitter went straight to labeling Manchin as a lobbyist bought Senator that double deals in fossil fuels but if the reconciliation bill delivers anything near the dollar amounts for actual deployment and funds for R&D, it will be a major energy victory for solar and storage industries.
Manchin Was Never In. Joe Manchin is a democrat from West Virginia, the State that is synonymous with coal mining. To think that he was ever going to support the energy transition through fiat, is naive in understanding how politics works. Removing the CES from the bill now, clears the path for Manchin to help the democrats deliver the rest of the legislation and show the other side and his voters that he stood up for them. That’s why the game is played, you may not like it but this is the full contact sport of politics.
But Don’t Ignore His Value. Here’s a note to everyone that may not like my message this morning about Manchin. He may not be the green warrior you’d like him to be as the 50th vote but he’s the 50th democrat in the US Senate that gives Chuck Schumer the gavel. Do you know what the legislation would look like if McConnell had the gavel because you’d rather see Manchin wear a GOP label? And I know someone will point out to me the millions that coal and fossil fuel industries have donated to the Senator this year, you’re right. But let me ask you this, how much have you or the solar industry donated to this or other US Senators to get their support? If you think politicians are solely driven by donations, which I would argue against, then why aren’t you playing the game? It can’t be because the coal industry is financially more viable than solar is it?
The Market Speaks. The decade long extension of tax credits for solar and addition of stand alone tax credits for storage will do far more for the energy transition than a federal policy mandating the transition. Over 50% of the US population already has a 100% clean energy standard and other States, like Florida, are leveraging regulated industries driving shareholder return to head that way. The market is doing the transition, now let’s focus on speeding up interconnection applications and increased pricing signals in power markets.
C&I Market Update. Join the Sustainable Capital Finance (SCF) team on Oct 27th, 10am PST, as they break down exciting new programs, incentives, and updates across the US C&I solar market. In this free webinar, the team will provide actionable information on a several solar-friendly states to help developers and EPCs better originate & execute projects. This webinar is recommended for solar developers and EPCs involved or interested in the C&I solar space. To join this exciting webinar, simply click here.
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Yann
This is your SolarWakeup for October 15th, 2021
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This is your SolarWakeup for October 14th, 2021
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This is your SolarWakeup for October 13th, 2021
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This is your SolarWakeup for October 12th, 2021
The Big Solar Purchase. India’s Reliance Industries has acquired REC for $771million. REC, the module manufacturer, that has made strides to be a leading premium provider in the US market will grow its manufacturing operations across the globe including new factories in the US, France and India as well as expansion in Singapore. This is an exciting transition story for Reliance as well and a nice footprint addition for domestic manufacturing. I’m a big fan of the US team that REC has and wish them all the success possible in the future.
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Yann
This is your SolarWakeup for October 11th, 2021
This Is The Climate Bill. The budget reconciliation bill was originally dubbed the societal benefits bill is taking on the mantle of a climate bill. Part of this is the push to get Arizona’s Senator Sinema to support the policy at a significant price tag and tease Senator Manchin with job training, reclamation and other energy related funding for West Virginia. Take me home, I say to this climate bill!
Community Solar’s Headline. Georgia’s Senator Ossoff has taken a focus to the solar industry, with Georgia taking leadership in solar manufacturing. Last week he hosted, Secretary Granholm as well as leaders from the solar space where the Secretary announced the plan to grow community solar to cover 5 million homes. For renters, lack of technical resource, or apartment dwellers, community solar does the good work of separating generation from offtaker. From a financing standpoint, it promotes a faster and more secure financing mechanism that doesn’t need a single mega off taker for a solar farm output.
A Pope’s Message. The Pope is canceling his attendance at COP26 in Glasgow but took time this week to speak to parliamentarians ahead of the UN climate conference. He emphasized that everyone has a role to play including political and government leaders and that society owes this commitment to young and future generations. He also met with Speaker Pelosi.
10 Years, Too Fast, Too Short. Senator King highlighted that the Biden goal for solar and clean energy production is fast and that utilities are rightfully calling it a tall order. That’s the Congressional issue with 10 year policies, that make it nearly impossible to push for legislation that outlines long term goals beyond that metric. So 10 years may be too fast, when it reality it’s the timeframe being too short for issues of climate’s magnitude.
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This is your SolarWakeup for October 8th, 2021
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This is your SolarWakeup for October 7th, 2021
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This is your SolarWakeup for October 6th, 2021
Gas Is The Talk. Natural gas pricing is skyrocketing, aimed to go even higher. Possibly as high as they’ve been this millennium. The global energy crunch is coming and the PR campaign to blame renewables is already starting. Interesting considering, gas capacity is as high as ever and it’s the commodity price alone that is creating the price impacts.
Energy Costs This Winter. The forecast for this winter is not pretty, some forecasting natural gas prices over $10/mmBtu. That is real money for families across the Country and takes money directly out of discretionary spending that would otherwise go into the economy.
SunPower Goes Vertical. With their quarterly earnings, SunPower announced it was buying Blue Raven Solar and looking to get out of C&I by potentially selling that division. Interesting to see the consolidation towards the Sunrun business model happening across the market.
Big Win By CALSSA. California’s Attorney General filed an answer to the CALSSA lawsuit in court yesterday, saying the regulator would delay implementation of their plan to make solar installer fulfill unnecessary licensing requirements. Last month, the solar trade organization had no choice but to respond by attacks on the industry by filing suit on the licensing issue. Fight is not over (it never is) and all focus temporarily goes to NEM 3.0 at the CPUC.
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This is your SolarWakeup for October 5th, 2021
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