Guess Who’s Back!!! Stop the presses and get out your purchase orders! Suniva. Is. Back. In partnership with Heliene, a domestic content solution is in the market. On one hand, I guess the tariffs are doing their job as we’ve seen with other suppliers. On the other hand, will the brand survive starting the biggest trade war in solar since SolarWorld? Suniva really never went away, I’ve had multiple Suniva employees/e-mail address stay subscribed to this newsletter for the better part of 10 years. We’ll see how the market responds.

“Energy Pragmatism”. “In fact, in my nearly 50 years in finance, I’ve never seen more demand for energy infrastructure.” That’s Larry Fink, CEO of BlackRock, in his annual letter to shareholders as he coins the term ‘energy pragmatism’. The term encompasses the dual goals set by Countries around the world which originally started with decarbonization, i.e. energy transition, and now adding energy security. The pragmatism also brings in the additional issue of demand increase of markets due to economic growth in various sectors, Fink sites Germany and Texas as risks to suffer from outages. You can find the letter here

• Solar Power World: Heliene is first domestic silicon solar panel manufacturer to reach domestic content bonus
• Axios: BlackRock’s Fink shows the realpolitik of the energy transition
• Utility Dive: A new era of price-based demand response emerges, but utilities and regulators need proof of its potential
• Bloomberg: Amazon Says Japan Isn’t Meeting Corporate Needs for Clean Power
• New York Times: Yellen Warns China Against Flood of Cheap Green Energy Exports
• Reuters: US looks to reboot aluminium sector with a new smelter
• PV-Tech: Grid constraint “the fundamental challenge” for EU solar developers – LSS EU
• Renewable Energy World: Americans want residential solar, but trust and costs are still big concerns: report
• Energy Storage News: Rimac opens UK facility to manufacture first BESS units

Opinion

• PV-Magazine: Californians could see up to $128 fixed charge added to their monthly electric bill

Best, Yann

• PV-Magazine: 1100 GW solar and 1000 GW storage now await transmission interconnection
• Solar Power World: Sunnova to offer solar + storage services at Home Depots across the US
• Axios: Biden’s “hush-hush” oil boom
• Utility Dive: Sonnen CEO aims to repeat company’s Utah virtual power plant success
• Bloomberg: China Grid Giants Seek Solutions for a System Flooded With Solar
• Reuters: Europe’s clean power sources on a record roll in early 2024
• Energy Storage News: Texas BESS reliability issue is ‘not over’ for ERCOT despite NPRR 1186 state-of-charge rule rebuff

Opinion

• Renew Economy: “No excuses -” Australia urged to exit coal, double rooftop solar by 2030 in accelerated push to net zero

Best, Yann

• Bloomberg: Hawaii Faces Lengthy Blackout Risk Amid Power-Plant Outages
• Reuters: Maxeon Solar files patent infringement lawsuit against Canadian Solar
• Heatmap: Biden’s Big Bet on Aluminum
• New York Times: Germany’s Solar Panel Industry, Once a Leader, Is Getting Squeezed
• Utility Dive: ISO/RTO Council urges FERC to nix NERC’s proposed cold weather reliability standard
• Renewable Energy World: REC Silicon delays restarting Moses Lake polysilicon plant
• Energy Storage News: ARENA funds microgrid trials for sodium-sulfur, zinc-bromine LDES tech in Western Australia
• PV-Magazine: DOE releases funds to streamline siting and permitting for renewables

Opinion

• Axios: Why real estate websites are adding climate change data to home listings

Best, Yann

Slower, Faster Or As Expected. Every headline these days is about energy demand, even old statements are recirculating the internet. On a personal level, I am not sure that we are going to be meeting the moment. There is no doubt that power plants are reaching the end of their 3^rd or 4^th lives, coal plants from the 60s and 70s are still operating. Plants will have to retire and many of them will repower if the economic case can be made for it. That leaves a big hole in the generation side which we absolutely need to make up with all of the solar and wind that can get built. This means more interconnection throughput and faster paths to offtakes across the geographies that need the energy. Demand side changes must also be met with regulatory flexibility, particularly in data centers. As society advances with our ever growing desire to stream everything and how fast the growth in AI will impact everyone’s everyday lives, data centers are the center of that possibility. So here’s the big question for you, do you think the overlap of retirements of generation meeting demand for new power is coming at us slower, faster or as expected in forecasts?

• Bloomberg: From AI to Oil, Demand Dominates the Talk in Houston
• Axios: Americans’ average commute distance, mapped
• Reuters: Europe’s top utility to invest $45 billion with focus on US grids
• PV-Tech: Primergy signs ‘long-term’ PPA with San Diego Community Power for solar-plus-storage project
• Renewable Energy World: SunPower gets Nasdaq deficiency notice for late filing
• Solar Power World: IRS further defines energy community qualifications for IRA credit
• Energy Storage News: EU Batteries Regulation ‘will force energy storage industry to think more about end of life’
• Heatmap News: Suburbia Is the Real Battleground for Electric Cars
• PV-Magazine: IRA clean energy projects to create 30,000 North Carolina jobs, $10 billion to GDP

Opinion

• Wall Street Journal: Rivian’s Delivery Van – Not Just for Bezos Anymore

Best, Yann