Tag Archives: Daily Rundown

This is your SolarWakeup for August 10th, 2023

The Storage ITC Is Here. Years of talk, years of advocacy and one giant piece of legislation leads to this, a successful portfolio raise for tax equity on a stand-along storage project. In this case, SMT Energy is showcasing their raise in a way to show that a good project with bankable & capable partners developed by an experienced team can put the money to work. I’ve known the SMT team for many years and super happy to see them get this done. 

Opinion

Best, Yann

This is your SolarWakeup for August 9th, 2023

Possibility Doesn’t Pay The Bills. GM will follow Ford in marketing that the vehicles are capable of vehicle to grid (V2G). The theoretical use case of V2G, especially in aggregate, is really interesting. The actuality of getting vehicles to discharge the right amount (so that drivers can get home) is much more complicated. But this is all in the name of nothing at all if grid operators don’t start actually paying for the resources even on a standby basis. Some of the most expensive power plants in the Country run less than 10 times per year while solar has been saving the grid during this last run of heat waves without getting paid for the resilience.

Shortsighted Economics of Innovation. I’m saddened to see Proterra file for bankruptcy protection. It is my hope that the company will be acquired or recapitalized, logically by an OEM. Proterra is the national interest for large vehicle electrification, maybe a few years early. I had the pleasure of meeting former CEO, Ryan Popple, and interviewing him for the SolarWakeup podcast prior to his untimely passing. Let’s all root for the next chapter in Proterra’s future.

Opinion

Best, Yann

This is your SolarWakeup for August 8th, 2023

The Physics Of Funnels. Fill a funnel too fast and it all ends up on your face. Make the funnel too wide and you have too much momentum in the receiving reservoir. You have to pour it at the right pace for the type of ratio from big to small or you have to have the right ratio for the speed of the pour. The same is going to be true for large points of interconnection from offshore wind farms. The larger the farm and the more specific the interconnection point needs to be designed for or it risks disrupting the grid stability on the receiving end.

Opinion

Best, Yann

This is your SolarWakeup for August 7th, 2023

Sometimes, It Feels Hopeless. More drilling, less clean energy. What a sentence, and yet completely believable when it comes to politics. But what does drilling and clean energy really have to do with each other? Oil and electricity have no overlap. Gas does, but is there a shortage of gas supply? Are utilities having a hard time building gas plants? Let’s be clear, this is a market dynamic that has little to do with politics. Oil and coal plants won’t be built again and the auto sector is electrifying. On the other hand, what is the reason for the anti-clean energy stance from a republican standpoint? I see plenty of free market activity and job creation every day from this industry and continue to see the opportunity for the solar and storage markets to be completely bipartisan.

Opinion

Best, Yann