SolarTech Aims for 3GW of PV in California by 2017

Most solar conferences are powerpoint marathons, interrupted by coffee breaks and low-grade lunch food.

SolarTech forums don't settle for that.  Except for maybe the food part.

These are not high-tech meetings with deep dives into Tellurium supplies – they are nitty-gritty forums for installers, utilities, and regulators to figure out how to bust through the roadblocks that prevent residential solar in the U.S. reaching wider and faster deployment (see California's Top Solar Cities).

SolarTech's charter is to effect change in the solar installation process – and the organization wants concrete results.  

One of its stated goals is a 50 percent decrease in interconnection cycle time by 2012.
Another long-term aim of the SolarTech team is to define a plan to get to 3 gigawatts of PV by 2017. 

Doug Payne, the driven Executive Director of SolarTech defines interconnection as "The point from the system being approved to final inspection, connection to the grid, and getting the benefits of net metering."
 
Some of the process changes that SolarTech is working on:

• Online applications and tools (shared, automated, with FAQs)
• Streamlining the application process (permitting process, fees, consistency, communications and usage info)
• Simplified meters (real-time delivery)

Peter Rive, the Co-Founder and COO of SolarCity had some good comments:

• "You don't get your margin until the interconnection and the rebate is provided.  We will do anything to reduce that cycle time.  The working capital requirements when you scale this are enormous.  The industry is motivated and ready to invest time and effort to reduce cycle time."
• "You have to think of solar as a consumer product – and it's a freaking annoying product – you have to be home six or seven times during the course of the installation. It's more annoying than buying a house." (Both the Rive siblings are prone to cursing in public fora.)

But who owns this process?  How does the solar industry implement these changes?

"The California Public Utilities Commission needs to own the process" according to a CEO I spoke with. He didn't want attribution so as not to anger the CPUC.

Top 10 California Solar Cities: And the Winner Is…

California is the the king of U.S. solar.  In 1999 there were about 500 PV rooftop installations. That number has grown to more than 50,000 rooftops producing more than 500 megawatts today, according to the California PUC.

Environment California Research and Policy Center released a paper earlier this month on California's solar cities. 

And the winner is... San Diego.  San Diego has been ranked No. 1 in the state of California and in the nation for solar power, according to the report.

San Diego County produces more solar power than every state except New Jersey and has more installations than Texas and Florida combined, according to Environment California.

California’s largest cities lead the state’s “Top Ten” list for total solar power capacity installed per city.  San Diego (with over 2200 installations) leads Los Angeles and San Francisco as well as upstarts like Fresno, Bakersfield and... Clovis (?).

San Diego is the state’s solar power leader in the number of solar rooftops as well as in the amount of energy generated with more than 19-megawatts installed. San Diego is followed by San Jose and Fresno, with more than 14 megawatts each, Los Angeles with 13 megawatts, Santa Rosa, Bakersfield and San Francisco which have more than 7 megawatts each, Oakland and Chico which have more than 6 megawatts each, and Napa which has more than 5 megawatts installed (many at winery sites).

In the words of the report, "Solar power is a no-brainer energy resource for California. Cleaner than fossil fuels, safer than nuclear power, and one of the most reliable sources of electricity, solar power is a critical part of California’s clean energy future."

The data-laden report can be downloaded here.

Solar on the Pole: Petra Solar

Analysts and journalists were not welcome at the SEPA utility event I crashed in San Jose, Calif. today. Julia Hamm of SEPA, one of the "women to watch" in solar, did allow me to join the several hundred utility players for lunch at the Marriott, though.

One of the sponsors of the event was Petra Solar, a 50 employee microinverter startup with a bit of a twist.  

Petra was funded with a $14 million Round A in 2007 from Element Partners and Blue Run Ventures.  As mentioned, the firm builds microinverters.  But what was it doing at a utility event?

Well, Petra sells a kitted system consisting of a solar module, an integrated microinverter, mounting hardware, and wireless monitoring equipment. It intends on selling this system directly to utilities for mounting on the distribution pole or streetlight pole. 

It's meant to be installed by a utility crew in less than 30 minutes and to deliver AC power directly to the grid.  By dealing with utilities and mounting directly on the utility-owned pole – the hassles of permitting and Nimbyism are pretty much avoided.

Petra has allied with SunTech and it's safe to assume that means they're buying SunTech PV panels.

Here's the big news. According to Adje Mensah and Joseph Polaski of Petra's sales and marketing team, the company is soon to announce a 200,000 pole deployment with a Northeast utility.  That's a lot of panels and about 40 megawatts of distributed power.

It's a new sales channel and a new niche for solar – and as interesting as the idea might be, I wonder what the barrier to entry is for an existing PV module manufaturer or an existing microinverter firm like, say, Enphase. 

SunPower Reports a Strong 2Q, Raises Guidance

SunPower is in the midst of its second quarter earnings call as I'm writing this. You can read the details here. 

In a challenging financial environment, SunPower reported a strong second quarter. SunPower:

• Posted second quarter 2009 revenue of $298 million
• Raised $458 million in an equity and convertible debt offering
• Implemented a regional panel manufacturing strategy
• Launched its new T5 fixed-tilt commercial roof mounting system
• Expanded to approximately 600 SunPower dealers worldwide
• Signed a $100 million commercial project financing agreement with Wells Fargo Bank

The company was also optimistic about the balance of 2009 and raised its 2009 guidance to $1.35 to $1.7 billion.

Some More Take-Aways From the Call:

• Demand is recovering from a difficult first quarter
• SunPower has the leading market share in California
• It is seeing improved conditions in Europe
• SunPower has a branding effort going on with radio and print commercials which is resulting in an increase in lead generation

Utility and Power Plant Market

• Substantially completed a 25 megawatt project for Florida Power & Light
• Installing 10 megawatt at Kennedy Space Center

Technology and Performance

• Currently achieving cell efficiency of 22.5 percent
• Working on reducing LCOE
• SunPower claims a 5 percent better energy harvest – its cells run cooler because of highter efficiency and better temperature coefficient
• It claims to have no light induced degradation
• SunPower is reducing tracking cost and can install 1 megawatt per day in the field
• It can now install trackers at less than a 10 percent premium over a fixed tilit system and generate up to 30 percent more power

And Here's More Optimism

• SunPower looks to reach a panel cost of under $1 per watt by 2014 with efficiencies of 25 percent

Nice to hear some positive news from a recovering solar industry.

Exxon Ups the Algae Ante Big Time

Wow.

Synthetic Genomics announced a $300 million agreement with Exxon to research and develop next generation biofuels using photosynthetic algae. And according to the New York Times, Exxon is going to invest another $300 million in in-house research.

That investment will occur over a number of years – but that's still a lot of cash.  It's more than the total amount of venture capital invested in algae startups since 2005.  A drop in the bucket for Exxon but still, big money. Synthetic also has a deal with BP to genetically engineer microbes for green chemistry.

I've written extensively and skeptically about the hype in this very nascent industry and the breathless claims of algae biofuel firms scaling up at a "pump-parity" price. But Exxon believes and has put its money where its mouth is. (Actually the money came from Exxon Mobil Research and Engineering). And it's going to take an investment of this scale to get algae to market in any significant way. 

Here are some recent algae blog entries:

• Algenol: the Elephant in the Room

• Algae Fantasists

• Open Ponds vs. Closed Bioreactors

The Times quoted Synthetic Genomics dynamic founder, J. Craig Venter, as saying, “I came up with a notion to trick algae into pumping more lipids out."

But here's a telling line from the story: "Both companies said they still had a range of problems to solve that include determining what types of algae to use and whether it is more efficient to grow them in open ponds or in closed containers called bioreactors."

If these are still questions at SGI and Exxon – how to grow the algae and which species or strain – then these firms have betrayed that we are still very early in the Research portion of the program, we are not yet at the Development part of R&D. 

Venter is a man of action and it's not a good bet to wager against him. But the problem with algae – is that it's not just tricking the algae to pump more lipids out.  There's an entire process chain in algae farming that needs to be optimized – algae growth, algae harvest, drying and more. And again, if they are still talking about closed photobioreactors for mass algal fuel deployment, then Exxon and SGI have a lot to learn.

Still – great news for algaepreneurs and an investment at the necessary scale in dollars and time to get algae out of the test tube and into the tank. More on this story soon.

The U.S. uses billions of barrels of gasoline each day.

Intersolar: Solar Manufacturing Steel Cage Death Match

Greentech Media and Intersolar orchestrated a steel cage death match between some opposing manufacturing philosophies.

In one corner was Shammy Khan of Flextronics with the EMS model and in the other corner was Roger Little of Spire Solar and his "10-megawatt factories everywhere" concept. Adrian Maynes of M+W Zander stood outside the ring and threw a few chairs.

According to Mr. Little – module factories can run as low as 10 megawatts and reach scale and be profitable.  According to Little, a 50-megawatt factory can produce 226-watt modules at 15.5 percent efficiency and yield $17 million EBITA.  Roger also suggested that a 1-kilowatt module can drive the cost of the system down – you'd have to build it on-site but you would save 30 cents per watt.

Shammy Khan of Flextronics, suggested that the a more centralized EMS manufacturing approach was more appropriate for this industry and the sweet spot for CM companies starts at balance of system and works up from there.

Maynes of M+W Zander spoke of scaling-up manufacturing and 100-megawatt factories being more in the sweet spot for solar manufacturing. He believes that economies of scale will become increasingly more important and drive cost improvement and time to market.