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.

• Bloomberg: $266 Trillion in Climate Spending Is a No-Brainer
• Reuters: Britain’s energy regulator launches rules to speed up grid connection
• Axios: Exxon unveils “Mobil Lithium” in foray into EV supplies
• PV-Tech: The end of mass grading for solar projects
• Renewable Energy World: Siemens Gamesa scraps plans to build blades for offshore wind turbines on Virginia’s coast
• Energy Storage News: ‘Largest approved BESS in Europe’ claimed in Germany as regulators extend grid fee exemption to 2029
• Canary Media: It’s hard to connect clean power to the grid. New software can help
• PV-Magazine: Commercial scale solar provider Altus Power reports Q3 financials

Opinion

• Utility Dive: EV sales are rising. So why are automakers nervous?

Best, Yann

Update The Grid, For Free. America is a great system, if you want something fixed or built, just promote it as an opportunity to make money, send the right price signal and private capital will arrive to the scene. The top article argues my point.

Nuclear Hurting Itself. A lot is made about the system being anti-nuclear but ultimately it’s up to the nuclear ecosystem to be able to build projects on budget and they repeatedly struggle with that. Look at offshore wind, massive supply chain disruptions and the fastest increase of cost of capital in decades and regulators won’t reopen negotiations but Vogtle Nuclear got a decade of increased and early cost recovery.

Batteries Are Already Saving The Grid. More and more studies are coming out about the Texas winter storm and how batteries played a role (those that were operational at least, not all storage systems are created equal). But that is also true as operators are thinking about retirements and variability from wind and solar. Storage’s role has a tune of multi-trillion dollar opportunity.

Managing Installer Cash Flow. Interest rates are the highest in 22 years, increasing solar financing costs and softening consumer demand for loan products. Businesses feel 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.

• Renewable Energy World: Electricity markets may need to change to support the clean energy transition
• Yale: Battery storage helped Texas power through summer heat
• Utility Dive: US grid rules preclude reliability, security benefits of cloud computing, experts warn
• Bloomberg: TotalEnergies Nears Deal to Buy Texas Gas Power Plants
• New York Times: U.S. Bets on Small Nuclear Reactors to Help Fix a Huge Climate Problem
• PV-Tech: Spruce Power posts increased Q3 revenue following large asset acquisition
• Solar Power World: Kentucky utility to retire 5 fossil fuel plants and add almost 1 GW of solar power
• Canary Media: Chart – Clean energy attracting nearly twice as much investment as fossils

Opinion

• PV-Magazine: U.S. Geological Survey and Berkeley Labs release updated solar project database

Best, Yann

It’s The Friday Rundown. We’re heading into the tail end of the year, everyone is doing budgets and ready for the 2024 that 2023 was supposed to give us. Don’t forget to budget your policy spend in time and money!

Upgrades, You Need To Plan For. This hasn’t affected your solar plants but it will affect your battery plants within the first few years of operation and then many times throughout the life. You’ll need to regularly comply with regulatory specifications and upgrade your plant to take advantage of more revenue streams. Read today’s top story to see who’s doing this well and doing it now.

Utility Capital Stockage. Utilities are getting their balance sheets into shape for a massive deployment of capital in the coming years. This is causing some pain in the stock prices but ultimately should be seen as a positive for future investments being made towards the energy transition. Of course, there are trillions in external investments ready to be made for utilities as an offtaker, a path that some utilities without the needed capital will have to take if needed.

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.

• Solar Builder: FlexGen streamlines energy storage site upgrade process to meet regulatory standards
• Utility Dive: Utilities likely to continue selling non-core assets amid $745B in planned spending – Moody’s
• New York Times: In a U.S. First, a Commercial Plant Starts Pulling Carbon From the Air
• Axios: A setback for small nuclear reactors as Idaho plan scrapped
• Reuters: Wind woe opens door for alternative green ideas: podcast
• PV-Tech: ‘Massive increase’ in solar module defects poses ‘significant risk’ to PV industry – CEA
• Renewable Energy World: Electricity markets may need to change to support the clean energy transition
• Canary Media: Mainers reject historic bid to make for-profit utilities publicly owned

Opinion

• PV-Magazine: California rooftop solar policy struggles serve as warning to nation

Best, Yann

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.

• PV-Tech: US DOE picks three solar companies to install rooftop solar and batteries in Puerto Rico
• Axios: Major UN report blasts “doubling down” on oil, gas and coal ahead of COP28
• New York Times: A Package of Bold Laws Puts Michigan on a Fast Track to Renewable Energy
• Bloomberg: EQT Buys Battery Storage Firm Statera in £500 Million Deal
• Utility Dive: Texas voters approve $10B energy fund, with most going to build gas-fired power plants
• Solar Power World: New database maps large-scale solar projects across the country
• Energy Storage News: CATL, Quinbrook partner to deploy over 10GWh of battery storage in the next five years

Opinion

• PV-Magazine: Analysis finds 10 GW of solar could have dropped unserved load by 15% during Winter Storm Uri

Best, Yann