California Solar Mandate weakened by Commission’s new definition of community solar
Does the update to California’s solar mandate undermine residential solar and storage, as advocates claim? Or does the new definition of “community solar” provide more choice to builders and low-income homeowners? The answer might be “yes” to both questions.
Tesla can continue to cut trees for German ‘gigafactory’
Tesla has secured approval from the Berlin-Brandenburg administrative court to start clearing 91 hectares of forest for its first European “gigafactory,” which is scheduled to start operations in summer 2021.
Solar electronics leaders Enphase and SolarEdge post strong Q4 and massive 2019
The leaders in solar module-level power electronics are profitable and making enormous jumps in revenue. All signs point to a strong 2020 for residential solar — which could keep the momentum going.
Yotta Energy is putting batteries under solar modules — in the same spirit as microinverters and optimizers
Yotta has a potential solution for solar-plus-storage in the urban environment. Will the micro-storage startup become the next SolarEdge or Enphase? Or the next JLM energy? And whatever happened to SolPad?
Fuel cell builder Bloom Energy continues streak of business math errors and lack of profits
A likely profitless 2019 will bring Bloom’s streak to 76 profitless quarters. Its most recent business math error has the firm restating years of earnings.
Morning Brief: unenthusiastic solar bill in West Virginia, battery storage is suffering from ‘growing pains’
Plus the Rise and Fall of Real Goods Solar, Australian solar predictions and 50 MW of PV in Zimbabwe
California’s solar mandate to deliver more than 1 GW
California has long led the way when it comes to solar deployment – both on the rooftop and at utility scale. The state is now pushing forward with a solar mandate for new homes, which could be a ‘eureka moment’ for the U.S. solar sector.
Software can drastically improve the economics of commercial solar
Jigar Shah of Generate: “Load flexibility is the giant issue nobody is talking about…Extensible Energy’s load-flexibility software is a win-win for the solar contractor and the building owner. Building owners get a higher ROI and faster payback time, and the solar contractor can offer an easy-install demand charge solution with or without batteries.”
Explosive growth: BNEF expects California residential battery installations to quadruple this year
As a California installer has said, “I kind of compliment PG&E because they’re our best marketing department when it comes to battery storage. Now the challenge is there’s a very limited number of battery storage systems that are going to meet the reliability threshold.”
Energy storage innovations and exhibitors at Intersolar San Diego
EMP/solar flare-hardened gear, storage-behind-the-PV-module and Generac made appearances at the Intersolar show in Southern California last week.
