Utility Scale PV

Even the profitless fuel cell industry can launch a SPAC, cheered on by the current mania for hydrogen technology. Lots more in today’s brief.

A report just released by the University of Texas at Austin’s Webber Energy Group has tackled how much solar each state could develop along interstate interchange and exit locations and how much this solar could potentially be worth.

The utility is planning on replacing the San Juan coal-fired station’s 847 MW of capacity with 650 MW of solar generation and 300 MW/1,200 MWh of accompanying energy storage. The new plan all but kills a proposal from San Juan’s owner and the City of Farmington to add a carbon-capture retrofit to the station.

Proclamation issued Oct. 10 cites impact of imported bifacial panels on U.S. solar manufacturing, while also raising the scheduled fourth-year tariff rate from 15% to 18%. 

The 4.1 MW array, developed by Next2Sun, was constricted with roughly 11,000 bifacial panels, provided by Chinese manufacturer Jolywood.

Dean Solon, CEO of Shoals: “A lot of people thought that the 100 MW fields were all dead, but those suckers are coming back with a vengeance.”

Dean Solon of Shoals Technologies Group: “The short version is that it’s been a damned good year.” An interview with Shoals covers the growth of large solar projects in the U.S., high AC/DC ratios and the real costs of using cheap components.

John Tough of Energize Ventures shares an investor’s view of the biggest solar IPO of 2020. It’s the first and largest solar tracking company available to U.S. public markets.

As it stands today, 2021 will likely be one of the strongest markets for solar equipment manufacturers selling into the U.S. market. A perfect storm of a recovering market post-pandemic, access to cheap capital, and the impending ITC drop-off will create strong, near-term market demand, as well as intense safe harboring activities.

Profitable solar tracker company Array Technologies is going public the old-fashioned way and eschewing the SPAC method being employed by other renewable companies such as QuantumScape and ChargePoint. Did we mention the company was profitable?