SolarCity (SCTY)

[Snerruc]

BREAKING: Hawaii PUC rejects NextEra-Hawaiian Electric merger



PUC votes to deny HECO/NextEra merger

On the Big Island HELCO gets 50% of their power from renewable resources. In my neighborhood about a third of the houses have solar and net metering. Quite a few people have cut the cord out in the country and most I know are doing pretty well. For some solar is cheaper than grid power.

 

[doggusfluffy]

Governor Signs Bill To Give Duke Flexibility On Coal Ash Cleanups

“The new coal ash law establishes a firm timetable for providing permanent water connections and repairing dams at coal ash ponds,” DEQ Secretary Donald van der Vaart said in a statement. “It also protects customers by allowing for less expensive methods of closing coal ash ponds that won’t be passed on in the form of higher electricity prices.”

Duke had lobbied for more flexibility, saying it can't meet the removal deadlines in the 2014 law. And it argues that excavating all its sites would cost too much, requiring electric rate increases.

Trico proposing higher base charge, solar payback cuts

Nitido said the revenue shortfall is almost entirely due to customers with rooftop solar installations, who because they generate most or all of their electricity don’t pay for the fixed costs of energy, such as transmission and distribution, that are included in charges for each kilowatt-hour of energy used.

Trico figures those roughly 1,500 solar customers cost the company, and in turn other non-solar customers, about $80 per month in unrecovered fixed costs, or about $2 million a year.

 

[TheTalkingMule]

More financing....

SolarCity Raises $345 Million for New Solar Projects

 

[dandurston]

Good stuff. Nice to see that some if it occurred in Q2. Would be nice to know the terms.

 

[neroden]

More financing....

SolarCity Raises $345 Million for New Solar Projects

That's behind a paywall; I found the original on PRNewswire:
SolarCity Raises $345 Million to Finance New Solar Projects

Could someone explain to me exactly what the "debt aggregation facility" is? In words of less than 20 syllables, please. I am very slow to understand this... I'm trying to figure out if this is increasing SCTY's ability to refinance old panels.

(After looking this up, I think it doesn't. This seems to be the revolving loans for new construction, done prior to securitization. SolarCity Closes $500 Million Aggregation Facility | SolarCity )

Also, I basically get what the SREC financing facility is -- it's banks buying the right to future SRECs, for later resale to utilities. But what do they mean by "hedged" SRECs? Can someone explain in detail what exactly is hedging them?

 

[30seconds]

Unfortunately there isn't enough detail in the release to tell anyone really what the debt aggregation facility is. From the title and the underlying business model I would guess that it is basically short term financing for new installs that allows solarcity the time to put together a package of installs to sell as an asset backed security. It is debt & allows them to aggregate systems.

Should have nothing to do with old panels. Plus it isn't clear how much of the older systems need refinancing and on what timelines. Most of the later ABS are designed for full payback so there won't be a need to refinance.

Have no idea how or what the SRECs are hedged, so can't really help

 

[TheTalkingMule]

I would venture a guess that the +$70M goes toward expansion and Buffalo.

And maybe "hedged SRECs" refers to monetizaton that retains some portion of the potential upside. For instance, PA SREC's were sabotaged down to like $26 in value by the former governor, but may be worth $200 if allowed to appreciate naturally. You wouldn't want to sell off 100% of that up side.

 

[doggusfluffy]

Peppermill in Reno latest casino aiming to leave NV Energy

If the Peppermill were to exit, it would purchase energy from Minnesota-based Cargill Power Markets, which is active in the West. The company is asking regulators to leave NV Energy by March, according to a filing last week.

I guess Buffett hasn't gotten the NV Energy monopoly ending memo or the future cost of electricity going to zero...
Texas' billion-dollar power struggle: Warren Buffett, NextEra, Hunts vie for Oncor

Stacy Nemeroff, an analyst with Bloomberg Intelligence, said bids for Oncor could value the company as high as $23 billion.
“NextEra may be motivated to increase its offer price” after the failed Hawaiian bid, she wrote.
Berkshire Hathaway Energy has the deep pockets to compete. Over 91 percent of its consolidated operating income was from regulated businesses last year, and it owns large utilities in Oregon, Utah, Nevada, Iowa and the United Kingdom.

 

[30seconds]

They may have needed to add some protection to sell the SRECs b/c of Nevada & PA. That would also be considered hedged

 

[jhm]

Reno casino latest Nevada company to request exit from NV Energy service

The NVExit continues.

 

[doggusfluffy]

PG&E to Plug Enphase Smart Inverters and SolarCity Storage Systems Into Its Grid Control Platform

Unlike other utilities SolarCity has worked with in the past, such as Southern California Edison or Hawaiian Electric, PG&E actually put the energy storage portion of this project out to bid under a request for proposals process.

“This was a real procurement, where we put in pricing of what it would cost for us to put in batteries and make them available to the utility,” said Hanley. “It embraced third-party-owned and third-party-controlled assets.”

Hawaii LNG import boost uncertain after merger of Hawaiian Electric, NextEra blocked - Natural Gas | Platts News Article & Story

In its decision, the commission did not specifically cite plans to import LNG as a reason to reject the merger. But the commission said the companies had not shown the merger to be in the public interest with respect to five areas, including clean energy commitments and the effect on competition in local energy markets.

 

[TheTalkingMule]

Headed to Ireland for 15 days to unplug, fingers crossed for Q2 results.

Fully expect to be a quadrillionaire upon my return.

 

[kenliles]

Headed to Ireland for 15 days to unplug, fingers crossed for Q2 results.

Fully expect to be a quadrillionaire upon my return.

quadrillionaire a bit less Sterling today;
Better take it in $s...

have a good trip

 

[TheTalkingMule]

quadrillionaire a bit less Sterling today;
Better take it in $s...

have a good trip

Thanks. I'll be buying pounds in Derry on Saturday so that's at least 2 extra free beers for me!

 

[Lessmog]

quadrillionaire a bit less Sterling today;
Better take it in $s...

have a good trip

€s may be a better bet still ...

 

[dandurston]

Anyone have any speculation on the Q2 results?

My guess is that installations will come in under guidance. SCTY has always installed quite a bit less than they booked the previous quarter, so I think they'll install ~150 MW (guidance is 185 MW) and drop full year guidance to 1 GW (from 1 - 1.1).

I do think their new loan product is being well received, so I think bookings will rebound pretty well to ~240 MW with sales cost per watt dropping half way back to normal (e.g .$0.75).

Overall, I think the near term results will be a bit ugly but the share price might not tank because of positive momentum in cost per watt, bookings and claims of FCF positive in Q4.

 

[ggies07]

PG&E to Plug Enphase Smart Inverters and SolarCity Storage Systems Into Its Grid Control Platform

Thanks for the link! I really liked this part:

that under California’s Rule 21, which governs interconnections for solar and inverter systems, the state is set to start requiring smart inverter capabilities for all new solar installations starting in 2017.

 

[dandurston]

Well I'm pretty happy with the share price at $27. I think the deal will probably close around $30 but I've reduced my position substantially here to avoid the uncertainty of the Q2 ER.

My plan since the merger was announced was to sell 1/3 then, 1/3 when it reaches near the sale price (now) and then hold the last 1/3 through the deal. It's all nicely in the green for me with by far my biggest SCTY occurring at $16.88 after the last ER.

 

[doggusfluffy]

Google uses AI to cut data centre energy use by 15%

He said: “It’s one of those perfect examples of a setting where humans have a really good intuition they’ve developed over time but the machine learning algorithm has so much more data that describes real-world conditions [five years in this case].

“It’s much more than any human has ever been able to experience, and it’s able to learn from all sorts of niche little edge cases seen in the data that a human wouldn’t be able to identify. So it’s able to tune the settings much more subtly and much more accurately.”

APS' plans to increase reliance on natural gas draw questions

"To significantly increase the deployment of natural-gas-based generation, what we are doing is assigning significant risk if gas prices rise to levels we've seen in the past," Commission Chairman Doug Little said. "If we bet our future on the price of natural gas, the customer pays the price."

APS also is getting about 1,500 to 1,700 customers a month applying to interconnect rooftop solar arrays. The solar panels generate electricity at mid-day, but drop off at sunset.

 

[doggusfluffy]

API TURNS ATTENTION TO UTILITY COMMISSIONS: When the American Petroleum Institute absorbed America’s Natural Gas Alliance this year, the trade association added a new focus on “market development” after realizing that its agenda largely overlapped with that of the gas group, API President Jack Gerard said Wednesday. “So one thing we weren’t doing that we now do because of that integration is focus with public utility commissions,” Gerard said. A key concern, he added, “is to make sure people aren’t putting their fingers on the scale to disadvantage gas, at the behest of other energy forms — much like the Clean Power Plan rule,” which Gerard says gives too much credit to wind and solar. “So that’s part of what we do in that market development space — not only remind people that gas is affordable, reliable and we’ve got a lot of it, but in working with PUCs and others to remind them, you’re going to hurt your consumers if you go over here and pick energy forms that are more expensive. Let the market decide and we’ll work it out through technology.”

Judge’s order prevents ex-Nevada PUC official from deleting social media accounts

The Switch lawsuit notes that while the company was denied, others have been approved to leave, including MGM Resorts International and Wynn Resorts this year.

The lawsuit also notes that Switch was able to obtain 100 percent renewable power but at a significant premium and only with NV Energy “wedged in as a gratuitous middle-man.” The complaint alleges that NV Energy has been unjustly enriched due to purchasing 100 percent solar energy at 3.8 cents per kilowatt hour based on Switch’s consumption although Switch has been forced by the PUC and NV Energy to pay 9 cents per kilowatt hour to NV Energy for the same power.

Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway protests FERC market-based rate restrictions

Berkshire Hathaway's acquisition of NV Energy in 2013 put the company in charge of 19 GW of generating capacity in the West, according to RTO Insider, enough to fail the wholesale market screen designed to ensure no one company has a dominant position in the markets.

The company said in its request for a rehearing that “[The commission] did not provide sound reasoning, nor did it show a path to how it arrived at its decision...But, nonetheless, the commission moved ahead and revoked market-based rate authority and imposed cost-based rates.”