SolarCity (SCTY)

[doggusfluffy]

Pretty sure that APS won't go bankrupt

I'd fire my joke writer if he weren't a regulated monopoly and guaranteed a captive audience connected to his decreasingly relevant "ironic amusements".

 

[Foghat]

Arizona is obviously wiser and more thoughtful than those reckless PG&E rubes who agreed to testing SolarCity utility services...whilst mid bailout and careening towards certain bankruptcy no less.

How Arizona’s Biggest Utility Is Modeling the Customer of the Future in Its ‘Rate Design Laboratory’

Solarcity is starting grid services in September... The "pilot" is actual wholesale market participants in the real world, just a limited number. I expect a massive solar+storage product ramp across California (and all other utility participants at that time) in 2018...

 

[Foghat]

More developments in NV

Switch sues PUC, NV Energy for $30 million in damages, permission to leave utility

Bring Back Solar initiative to return net metering to retail rates also won ballot access in November. A recent poll showed 74% of Nevadans want retail net metering to return so it looks like a strong yes vote going into Election Day.

Only issue now is the buffet backed lawsuit to stop it. Those hearings are set for July 29th.

If buffet shot down here, this looks like a mulligan back to retail and solar companies could return by year's end.

 

[doggusfluffy]

Electric/gas bills to rise in Northern Nevada | NevadaAppeal.com

The Public Utilities Commission has approved the utility’s application to raise Northern Nevada rates by an average of 3.16 percent. That will add $2.60 a month to the average residential bill.

 

[gigglehertz]

The only rationale I can come up with for current shorting situation is folks expect a disastrous Q2 from Solar City and are falling all over each other to get in before the drop.

Have there been any securitization announcements since Q1 CC? I haven't paid that close attention given my personal life is in shambles, but it seems like all quiet on that front for awhile.

 

[gigglehertz]

almost all of USA's nuclear power plants produced recyclable energy sources, that can be reprocessed to use again and again; the amount of actual nuclear waste in such a marketplace would be very nearly zero. Only the damn commies who did all of the "GreenPeace" movements about nuclear caused very valuable energy sources to be labeled incorrectly as "waste",

Then what are Hanford, Yucca Mtn, Savanna River, etc built to store for thousands of years? Have you just found the next line item to remove from the budget?

 

[renim]

Then what are Hanford, Yucca Mtn, Savanna River, etc built to store for thousands of years? Have you just found the next line item to remove from the budget?

from a supply point of view, nuclear energy is extremely close to being renewable, so close that its worth lumping it in as the same as hydro, or even solar, since nuclear energy uses less resources than silicon solar PV tech....

But nuclear does not exist in technology vacuum, its medical and military applications are profound, and must be part of the stakeholders considerations.

So there is the paradox, Nuclear is more renewable than silicon solar PV (compare Canada Candu reactors to Chinese PV) but Nuclear also has military, medical and decommissioning implications.

since Nuclear is basically an inflexible renewable, it, of all power sources is unsuitable for a high intermittent renewable grid. There is no fuel saving, just cost additions. At least coal and gas can cycle off to save fuel costs.

 

[gigglehertz]

Silicon isn't a fuel, it's a technology. The sun is forever, as far as we humans are concerned. As is nuclear waste.

 

[jhm]

from a supply point of view, nuclear energy is extremely close to being renewable, so close that its worth lumping it in as the same as hydro, or even solar, since nuclear energy uses less resources than silicon solar PV tech....

But nuclear does not exist in technology vacuum, its medical and military applications are profound, and must be part of the stakeholders considerations.

So there is the paradox, Nuclear is more renewable than silicon solar PV (compare Canada Candu reactors to Chinese PV) but Nuclear also has military, medical and decommissioning implications.

since Nuclear is basically an inflexible renewable, it, of all power sources is unsuitable for a high intermittent renewable grid. There is no fuel saving, just cost additions. At least coal and gas can cycle off to save fuel costs.

You might want to consider Amory Lovins rebuttal to nuclear claims to relevance.

Closing Diablo Canyon Nuclear Plant Will Save Money And Carbon

 

[jhm]

Electric Utilities Prepare for a Grid Dominated by Renewable Energy

"Our monopoly days are coming to an end." -- NV Energy

 

[doggusfluffy]

Democratizing DERs: What role should utilities play in spreading clean energy to all?

“[DERs are] a way to give customers a way to control choice,” Val Jensen, senior vice president of customer operations for Commonwealth Edison said at the Smart Electric Power Association’s National Town Hall meeting this week in Washington. “I think any utility is not going to survive unless it gets on the right side of its customers in regards of the choices they want to make.”

“It’s a huge mistake by thinking customers don’t have a choice,” Jensen said. “It is not possible for us to be a monopoly; technology is going to take that away. Ultimately, if we can’t create value for customers we cannot keep business.”

 

[ggies07]

Democratizing DERs: What role should utilities play in spreading clean energy to all?

ooooh, I like this. Thanks!

 

[dandurston]

Have there been any securitization announcements since Q1 CC? I haven't paid that close attention given my personal life is in shambles, but it seems like all quiet on that front for awhile.

No I don't think so. It's a bit concerning.

 

[TheTalkingMule]

Valvoline junk bonds oversubscribed by 12x @ 5.5% this week. That has to be a good sign.

I trust that Radford Small, Lyndon and Elon are scheming as we speak.

 

[doggusfluffy]

Valvoline junk bonds oversubscribed by 12x @ 5.5% this week. That has to be a good sign.

I trust that Radford Small, Lyndon and Elon are scheming as we speak.

Sadly not in time for the hundreds of @$30 and @$40 options expiring worthless tomorrow. Pour one out for my homies. Peace.

 

[doggusfluffy]

Maybe there isn't as much in this deal for SolarCity after all. ITC applies to stationary storage if paired with solar already. I suppose it's about federal access and standardization rules for the grid and probably some DOE Clean Energy projects too. It's quite obvious what the GOP wants, for it's part at least.

CANTWELL SEEKS ACADEMIES' GRID ADVICE: Sen. Maria Cantwell is seeking advice on what Congress should do next to help modernize the electric grid given the rapid transformation underway in the industry. “From a largely analog system of one-way communication, centralized electric generation, the grid is moving toward two-way communication, and distributed electric generation and storage,” Cantwell writes in a letter today to the National Academies of Science and Engineering. The broad energy bills that the Senate sent to conference committee this week includes language that would increase federal funding for grid modernization programs.Cantwell, the ranking member of the Energy and Natural Resources Committee, asks how Congress can build on those efforts. Her questions focus on the expected growth of distributed generation, concern over whether utilities can recover their costs and cybersecurity, among other topics.

GOP energy negotiator accuses Senate chair of 'bizarre' promise

Rep. Rob Bishop (R-Utah), the chairman of the House Natural Resources Committee, said it defeats the purpose of going to a joint House and Senate conference committee if Republicans are going to preemptively agree to remove controversial, conservative provisions from the bill.

“As far as I understood, I was not privy to any conversations in which somebody made a deal that said this stuff will not be in or will be in,” Bishop told reporters Thursday. ”A conference is a conference. You handle it as a conference.”

 

[Foghat]

Japan to test 'virtual power plant' for renewables- Nikkei Asian Review

Japan starting a virtual power plant much like Pg&E pilot. Can't put the paste back in the tube now... Rooftop centric grids are coming globally.

Does anyone know the "U.S. company" involved in Japan's virtual power plant as stated in the article?

 

[doggusfluffy]

APS cutting into solar backlog

"It took another five months," said Smith, who believes APS was dragging its feet for financial reasons. "Well, as long as they delay, you're paying their rates," she said.

Arizona regulators approve APS demand management, efficiency programs

The utility will develop specific projects over the next four months, Scott Bordenkircher, an APS director, told KJZZ radio. Applications could include installing a battery for a customer with rooftop solar or in areas where there is already high solar penetration.

Bordenkircher said these kinds of projects will ultimately have a greater payoff for all ratepayers than individual customers buying their own battery systems.

 

[neroden]

Sadly not in time for the hundreds of @$30 and @$40 options expiring worthless tomorrow. Pour one out for my homies. Peace.

This is why I'm almost always on the sell side of options trades (except when I'm hedging or building a synthetic): I like having time value in my favor.

 

[doggusfluffy]

BREAKING: Hawaii PUC rejects NextEra-Hawaiian Electric merger

Hawaii is at the forefront of those changes, often described in the power sector as being a "postcard from the future." It is one of the only places in the U.S. where rooftop solar and energy storage are already economical for many consumers at the residential level. Rooftop solar penetration in Hawaiian Electric's service territory is already well over 10%—the feared tipping point at which many in the industry believe utilities will start to see truly significant grid integration and business model challenges.

PUC votes to deny HECO/NextEra merger

"Utility executives need to understand that innovative technologies like rooftop solar, just like cellphones before it, are the wave of the future," said Robert Harris, the Alliance for Solar Choice Spokesperson. "Simply selling out for a golden parachute is not a viable option for HECO executives, nor is fighting against customers trying to do the right thing for their households and the planet. Utilities need to move towards a 21st century grid that empowers customers to save money and produce cleaner power."