FERC Commissioners Tell Senate: Coal, Nuke Bailout Unnecessary

By Frank Andorka, Senior Correspondent

Yesterday, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) commissioners appeared before the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources and told the Senators what the rest of the world already knows: Water is wet. The Pope is still Catholic. And the nuclear and coal plant bailout Trump demanded is entirely unnecessary.

While the solar industry has been saying this since Trump first floated this Bob Murray special two years ago, Energy Law 360 reports that when asked if the bailout of failing nuclear and coal plants was important to national security, the crickets could be heard loud and clear from out on the National Mall. We’ll let Energy Law 360 set the stage:

“Do any of you believe that in the wholesale power markets, we’re facing an actual national security emergency at the moment?” Sen. Martin Heinrich, D-N.M., asked the FERC commissioners.

Democratic Commissioner Cheryl LaFleur answered first.

“I do not, Senator,” LaFleur said. “I think the markets are reliable.”

“Anyone willing to answer that with a yes?” Heinrich then asked.

No other FERC commissioner responded.

Like we said, crickets.

It has long been policy of this president to try to prop up failing nuclear and coal plants by any means necessary. It was what was behind the study Secretary of Energy Rick Perry ordered shortly after his appointment into the importance of “baseload power” and the completely arbitrary idea that electrical generation facilities must have 90 days of reserve power on site.

The study was expected to find that an increase in coal and nuclear plants were necessary. When it didn’t, Perry ordered the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to issue a rule that would have provided for bailouts of failing nuclear and coal plants. FERC respectfully declined.

Which is why the ball has landed back in the Department of Energy’s court, and they appear to be on the verge of simply ordering grid operators to buy power from these plants to provide the plant operators with a financial bailout orchestrated by the federal government.

It’s no shock that this action is coming. After all, it was President Trump who stood in front of West Virginia coal miners and offered them the impossible dream of bringing coal jobs back to the United States, despite the electricity market – including a majority of utilities – voting against such a move with their market-based plans to close the plants instead. To fulfill his campaign promise, the only way to save those jobs is to rig the system in favor of coal plants.

More:

FERC Commissioners Deny Necessity Of Coal, Nuke Bailout

Trump Throws Free Market Principles Out Window On Behalf Of Coal, Nuke Plants

Enphase To Purchase SunPower Microinverter Business

By Frank Andorka, Senior Correspondent

After the stock market closed, Enphase Energy – the once-struggling microinverter company that is seeing a resurgence under CEO Badri Kothandaraman, announced it was buying SunPower’s microinverter business for $25 million and 7.5 million shares of common stock.

Enphase stock rose 16% after the announcement.

The transaction means Enphase will now supply the microinverter technology for SunPower’s AC modules instead of SunPower producing the microinverters on their own. Tom Werner, SunPower CEO, tipped his hand about why the transaction took place in the release. He said the transaction will allow SunPower to “continue containing costs, leveraging R&D support and helping streamline our business priorities.” In other words, it will allow SunPower to focus all its energies on building modules instead of ancillary arms of the solar business.

The announcement comes weeks after SunPower announced it would purchase down-market rival SolarWorld and begin manufacturing more modules in the United States. Shedding the microninverter line is in keeping with a business strategy focused on building and expanding the company’s module lines both in the upscale and middle-tier residential markets.

On Enphase’s side of the ledger, the transaction provides a boost to a company clawing its way back to relevance after nearly two years of wandering in the darkness and falling under SolarEdge’s shadow. Starting in September, however, Enphase has racked up an impressive number of victories.

First, it posted profits for the first time in two years in Q4 and showed continued stability in the Q1 2018. It also signed an exclusive deal with Panasonic to provide microinverters to its AC modules, won a a court battle with SolarEdge over an ad and now the deal with SunPower. It’s unclear at press time what effect, if any, the SunPower deal will have on its agreement with Panasonic.

Taking a victory lap Kothandaraman said in Enphase’s release on the subject:

We are pleased to become the microinverter supplier for SunPower’s AC Modules. The IQ 7XS 320W AC microinverter in an ACM strongly complements SunPower’s high efficiency solar cells, communication and racking to create a high performance, high quality and easy-to-use Equinox™ Home Solar System, providing exceptional value to homeowners, dealers and architects.

Does this mean the microinverter battles at the industry’s two largest trade shows are over? No – in fact it may mean they are finally going to begin in earnest.

Could Perovskites Be Right Around the Corner? Solar-Tectic Earns Patents For Thin-Film Perovskite Technology

By Frank Andorka, Senior Correspondent

Perovskites have been the hot solar technology for several years now without, frankly, a lot to show for it. But one company – Solar-Tectic – has reached the patent stage for its thin-film perovskite technology.

Could perovskite modules be close behind? The answer is a definite maybe.

According to the company’s release, the breakthrough is the width of the bottom layer in the tandem cell. The release says:

Wafer sized bottom poly- and monocrystalline silicon layers in PERC, PERL, HIT, HJ, or perovskite/silicon tandem cells are typically 200-280 microns thick, whereas ST’s thin-film crystalline inorganic bottom layers can be as thin as 20-30 microns with the same or similar efficiency; moreover, they can be processed at much lower temperatures thereby lowering costs of production significantly.

Most solar observers believe perovskites would be a valuable addition to the solar space because their photovoltaic properties are much more sensitive than silicon, meaning their conversion efficiencies – how well they convert sunlight to electricity – is much higher. The theoretical conversion efficiency for perovskites is nearly 45%, almost twice the highest silicon cell efficiency (though in reality, thin-film modules such as First Solar’s have nearly reached a 30% efficiency).

The breakthrough patents correspond to a “Tandem Series” of solar cell technologies which has been launched by ST, and that includes a variety of different proven semiconductor photovoltaic materials (i.e. III-V, CZTS, a-Si, etc) for the top layer on silicon (or germanium) bottom layer, on various substrates such as cheap soda-lime glass. Last year, ST announced the first patent ever granted for this perovskite/silicon thin-film tandem approach.

Interestingly, the entire ST process is environmentally friendly since non-toxic Sn (tin) or Au (gold) is used to deposit the crystalline silicon thin-film material for the bottom layer in the tandem/heterojunction configuration as well as in the top, perovskite, layer.

U.S. Solar Continues To Grow Despite Significant Headwinds

By Frank Andorka, Senior Correspondent

First the good news: The overall U.S. solar industry grew year over year by 13%, adding 2.5 GW-DC in the first quarter of 2018.

Now the bad news: That’s a 37% quarter-over-quarter decrease.

So the latest quarterly U.S. Solar Market Insights Report, put out by the Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA) and GTM Research, is a bit of a mixed bag. But the fact that the U.S. solar market has shown any growth at all, in light of heavy tariffs on module imports, flat residential growth and a significant decrease in “non-residential” installations, is a good sign that the industry may well weather the storms.

“The solar industry had a strong showing in the first quarter,” said SEIA President and CEO Abigail Ross Hopper. “This data shows that solar has become a common-sense option for much of the U.S. and is too strong to be set back for long, even in light of the tariffs. States from California to Florida have stepped up with smart policies that will drive investment for years to come.”

“This is a promising indicator that constraints to residential PV growth like segment-wide customer acquisition challenges and national installer pullback are abating,” GTM Senior Analyst Austin Perea said. “However, these problems are not entirely solved, as we’re seeing slowdowns in states with a relatively high penetration of PV installations.”

The report notes that the three most active markets – New York, New Jersey and Maryland – will continue to contract, but Perea said he expects those declines to be offset by increases in emerging markets. In particular, Perea cited Florida – a market SolarWakeup has reported on extensively as it has taken off this quarter – as one of the significant bright spots as solar development skyrocketed in the state. In part, solar’s growth in the Sunshine State is being fueled by increasingly active third-party solar options, like Sunrun’s lease and Sunnova’s loan programs.

So far this year, Florida has added more solar than it did in all of 2016, which was the high-water mark for solar development in the United States so far.

GTM says it expects growth in the overall U.S. market will be flat, although the analysis couldn’t have foreseen the recent Chinese decision to decimate its own solar market which, if the module oversupply spills into the United States, could spark unanticipated growth in the U.S. solar market as markets that the tariffs had closed suddenly open again.