Tag Archives: Daily Rundown

This is your SolarWakeup for January 16th, 2023

See You In San Diego. If you find yourself at Intersolar this week, come by the FlexGen booth and say hello.

NEM 3.0 Disaster. The situation in California is dire, layoffs are impacting most businesses and demand is off a possible 40%. Some installers are saying that the cost of the install is more doubling with the addition of storage but without additional revenue streams, the payback is nearly 10 years. In reality, CAISO needs the aggregated demand provided by residential storage to maintain long term stability but the revenue streams are not matching that need. The pleas from the industry don’t appear to have infiltrated Sacramento or the governor’s mansion thus far, which is unfortunate.

ERCOT Challenged. While you’re reading this, ERCOT will likely be at it’s closest demand reserve, far less margin than operators would like to see. The cold snap hitting so much of the Country can isolate the most fragile portions of the grid infrastructure, with a single event possibly starting a chain reaction that leaves many without power.

The Smart Home. CES happened last week and the smart home remained a big portion of the tech event. For me, the smart home seems to have focused itself on what’s available on Amazon and connects with Alexa. I consider myself willing to try new tech but the single platform ecosystem has eluded me thus far, only a few apps have found a niche home in my smart home, centered around lighting.

Opinion

Best, Yann

This is your SolarWakeup for January 12th, 2023

Congrats. To the team at Orka for being acquired by Sunstone Credit. Lending is hard, C&I is harder, combine the two and you have a challenge ahead of you. Glad to see that come together for a team that deserves it and opportunity to keep growing this.

Rate Hikes And Volatility. This headline screams for community solar and solar tariffs for low income homes as a way to lower the price of energy for those spending the largest portion of their income on energy costs and to keep the future volatility away from them. Credit markets are inherently tough to maneuver based on today’s market so regulators and policymakers have to make a concerted effort to want to create a market here.

Who Filed Suit? I have a motion for a new trade rule. If you can’t put together 1% market share, you can’t blame trade on your lack of ability to execute. If you can’t sell your value to 1% of the market, your product isn’t worthy to be propped up. But that wouldn’t serve the real reason of the suit (whatever that may be), would it…

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.

Opinion

Best, Yann

This is your SolarWakeup for January 11th, 2023

The Polar Vortex Test. Over the next week the weather may not align with grid forecasts. Yesterday’s storm matched with ice conditions knocked out power to over 500k consumers across the east and another vortex is coming from the Canadian border. In the southeast we’ve had an unseasonably windy winter. ERCOT is looking at the weather forecast and has a rather tight operating window a week from today and that’s assuming everything works as it’s supposed to which we should all hope for.

Profits Sit With Risks. Herein lies the answer to the NYT’s opinion piece. Comparing renewables to oil or gas is flawed in its analysis with regard to profits. Solar and wind have a capital structure that centers around certainty with little room for volatility, i.e. no fuel costs and predictable operating expenses with a contract for revenue. Most power plants operate differently, producing energy on a dispatch or traded basis with much shorter contracts that allow room for upside. Fuel costs are inherently volatile when long term hedges don’t exist.

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.

Opinion

Best, Yann

This is your SolarWakeup for January 10th, 2023

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.

Opinion

Best, Yann