Tag Archives: Daily Rundown

This is your SolarWakeup for October 6th, 2023

US Goes Big On Minerals. America doesn’t nationalize industry but it has the tool belt of public private partnerships. Through direct investment, export/import banks and the loan guarantees, American companies can lead on a global stage to secure the supply chain that our Country needs for the next century.

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 October 5th, 2023

Learn The Term, IBRs. That’s inverter based resources and NERC has it’s displeasure with how well they handle grid imperfections. I mentioned this would come to the headline a few months ago and now there’s some coverage. So now expect more specification, requirements of the inverters for the solar and battery projects that you’re building, investing in and owning. It also means, as the story explains, that projects need to be commissioned more carefully and operated with real-time capabilities so that a single asset doesn’t take down an entire grid.

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 October 4th, 2023

Everyone Loves Solar. A new University of Maryland poll shows us once again that solar is popular, 75% of Americans support development of solar farms in their community. 87% for Democrats and 66% for Republicans. That’s as good of a bipartisan issue as you can find, especially in today’s DC.

A Manufacturing Conference. In 2012, the keynote at SPI said the US was a beneficiary in development, finance and structuring of solar deployment made possible by the lowering of costs of solar modules. Modules cost about $1/watt then, down from $4/watt. Every since, we’ve chased the elusive solar manufacturing complex here at home. Now we have a conference focused on manufacturing, that’s pretty good!

You Make A Battery, They Make A Battery. With the inventory of brands making residential storage boxes, you have to imagine the competition to get into the installers and distributors is fairly stiff. Distributors care about the following in my experience, cost of the product compared to other options, terms provided by the manufacturer for the inventory and pull through by the installer. With cost of capital at a multi-decade high, this is going to put some real pressure on the balance sheets of the manufacturers of these boxes and likely cause many of them to go direct, which is a challenge for shipping costs, credit and gaining share one installer at a time. The real benefit is options create competition for the long tail, my favorite segment of solar installer!

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 October 3rd, 2023

Opinion

Best, Yann