This guest blog by Angela Lipanovich, President of Estriatus Law, PC, is also posted on Estriatus Law’s Legal Review (August 08, 2017).
As the majority of the country prepares to experience darkness mid-day for the first time in nearly a century, the approaching total solar eclipse offers an opportunity for reflection, lessons and unification. On August 21, 2017, when the total solar eclipse occurs, our cleantech and renewable energy industry can pause to realize just how far we have come in transforming our nation’s electric supply and technological innovations. In the months leading up to this event, grid operators have prepared to navigate the rapid loss of large amounts of solar energy and the whiplash of solar energy coming back as the sun appears again higher in the sky than when it disappeared. As viewers travel in mass to watch from coast to coast, our relative size to the universe will be underscored.
The path of totality of the eclipse will start in Oregon and move eastward to South Carolina over the course of approximately 90 minutes. Since the last total solar eclipse, our country’s electric grid has undergone drastic changes that will be affected. In March and April of this year, U.S. monthly electricity generation from utility-scale renewable sources, including solar and wind, exceeded nuclear generation for the first time since hydro and nuclear were at the same level in July of 1984. Total PV power installed across the U.S. is estimated to be over 44 GW today with most large scale solar plants built within the past five years. More than 60% of all utility-scale electricity generating capacity that came online in 2016 was from wind and solar technologies.
The path of totality where the sun is completely blocked during the eclipse will affect 17 utility-scale solar systems, and hundreds of plants, mostly in North Carolina and Georgia, will be at least 90% obscured. More than 6 GW of capacity will be affected in areas that are at least 70% obscured. Northern California is expected to be 76% obscured and Southern California 62% obscured. The rolling effects of the eclipse are expected to have the biggest impact at approximately 10:30 a.m., when PV output is projected to drop 5 GW below typical generation levels. This represents the amount of energy needed to power approximately 1 million homes.
Despite the moon obscuring the sun during a peak time for solar-power production, no reliability issues are expected in the U.S.. Grid operators are lining up extra capacity primarily from natural gas powered turbines. In California, home to 40% of the country’s total PV capacity, the California Independent System Operator plans to replace solar generation from natural gas and hydropower.
To help offset solar-power loss during the eclipse, CleanTech Docs became a Do Your Thing for the Sun Partner with the California Public Utilities Commission. We have pledged to implement an energy-savings plan that will be deployed during the eclipse, and we are encouraging our customers to join us by taking specific actions to conserve energy during the eclipse. A few reminders about ways to reduce energy use during the eclipse, and thus, reduce greenhouse gas emissions are below:
- Visit CalEclipse.org or your local/state organization and take an eclipse energy saver pledge.
- Replace light bulbs with LEDs.
- Turn off lights in areas that are not being used.
- Don't charge electronics during the eclipse (9 a.m. to noon).
- Unplug all appliances not in use.
- For labs with fume hoods, shut the sash.
- Turn up the thermostat by 2-5 degrees.
- Take lunch an hour earlier and turn off lighting and equipment in your office while you’re out.
- If you regularly do laundry or run the dishwasher during the eclipse period, do so another time of day.
- Turn off computer monitors if out of the office.
- Avoid using microwaves during the event.
- Power down – shut off your computer. Powering down your computer completely uses 50% less energy than sleep mode.
- Power to the strip – use an electronic power strip. This will help reduce phantom loads. Turn the strip off when not using it.
- Retrofit old equipment with Energy Star products
We can all do better to reduce our carbon footprint, even those who work at companies or organizations dedicated to growing the cleantech and renewable energy industries. The eclipse is a chance to be reminded not only that we exist in a vast universe, but also that our life is supported by natural systems dependent on the sun. Our success is dependent on working together to solve climate change, one of the greatest threats facing humanity in the 21st century.
The California Independent System Operator has a webpage dedicated to the eclipse and its grid where viewers will be able to track solar production, current and net energy demand in real time.
As some of the people who have fought for solar for the past decade or more, we know the answer to this question. First, even within the industry's national solar trade organizations there is fighting between the commercial, utility and residential segments of the solar industry. Then, there is the fact that most residential solar companies are small in size without large budgets or the experience needed to successfully lobby at the federal level. And, finally, when pro-solar line items do make it into bills, they often somehow disappear right before the finish line even under the pens of DC politicians with a lot of solar in their states. As those who have worked in DC for a while will tell you: “everyones' pockets here are lined with fossil fuel money.”
With the residential solar industry once again moving to a more localized industry that must focus on surviving through referrals and staying small, the largely absent voice of any residential installation companies at the federal level, even within the industry’s main federal lobbying organizations like SEIA, cannot be ignored. The companies rated as the top U.S. “residential solar companies” by megawatts installed cannot be trusted to fight for the small, localized residential solar installation companies. First, some of them, like Sungevity and SolarCity, aren’t around anymore, at least not in their original form and their new forms are still uncertain and untested. Second, most of those companies, such as companies like SunRun and Vivant Solar, make money on their internal financing business models, which provide that they own the solar systems through providing solar power purchase agreements and leases to customers. Such business models, not always, but often, do better under commercial policy tools such as the commercial Investment Tax Credit (ITC). Truly pro-residential policies such as the residential ITC were hard fought wins by a very few, but vocal, members of the residential solar industry, like Akeena Solar, which also are no longer around.
What is the solution? At the same time that small residential solar installation companies (companies size 1 to 80 employees) is the current direction of the industry, in order for these companies to get what they need, they need to get educated on how to lobby, quickly. Although money is a strong motivator for politicians, so are votes and jobs. Companies should always mention how many jobs they create in their politician's district when asking for a policy item. And, in person meetings are more persuasive than letters and emails. Finally, companies should get active with their local solar trade association or work on creating a solar community in their area to band together and network. The residential solar industry, the true “residential solar” industry that isn’t in the finance business, needs good partners and lots and lots of community. Without paying a lobbyist a million-dollar salary to run around DC or even being able to participate on the Board of SEIA, residential solar companies need to band together and learn how to work together to get the policies that will truly benefit their businesses. Lastly, there are very specific techniques that work and others that don't work when lobbying. The more educated companies become on these techniques, the more effective they can be when advocating for pro-solar incentives and laws. Residential solar companies are small companies. At the same time, this should not stop them from effectively lobbying.
Trump has put together the most anti-enviromental administration in history. He just picked Daniel Simmons, a renewables critic, to head the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE). Now with Scott Pruit, a climate science denier and fossil fuel ally, in charge of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and Rick Perry in charge of the Department of Energy, which he once vowed to abolish, the cast of characters is complete.
As we've known, and written about previously, across the nation, commentators, attorneys and anti-solar groups have been gathering to provide stories and accusations to paint the solar industry as a predatory group of companies victimizing homeowners and other solar customers with false claims of energy and cost savings, poor products and tactics of invading personal privacy. Things like the recent United States Securities and Exchange Commission probe into SunRun and SolarCity over customer contract cancellations is just one very public example of the impacts of these efforts.
The solar industry has ridden out storms before, but we predict it has never seen a storm like the one that is approaching now. While solar might now be a $33 billion dollar industry, it is dwarfed by the $33 trillion dollars in lost revenue expected over the next 25 years for the fossil fuel industry due to climate change induced government regulations and other efforts to cut carbon emissions. Now is the time to turn to the advice of sailors on how ships survive a hurricane at sea.
Although no crew wants to be found in the midst of a hurricane, when one is unavoidable the ship can survive by focusing on four things: 1) get the weather report, 2) ensure you have the weight of cargo to stabilize the ship, 3) know if any good ports are available, and 4) if all else fails, steer towards the area with the shallowest waves and lowest winds.
Solar can learn a lot from this advice. Companies must stay informed, predict what is coming and know the weather forecast of their industry. A warehouse of inventory and dependable supplies can keep a company from a very wicked roll. The repeated impact of not having enough of the right supplies at the right price point can break a company apart. Just as not all ports offer the same kind of shelter, being caught in the wrong office lease can be dangerous. In such case, it might be better to go out to sea. And, companies will survive at sea if they keep a good distance from anything they might crash into and keep moving forward with enough power to steer.
Winning a fight at sea is very similar to winning a fight in cleantech. It depends on having a well-maintained company, a trained and experience group of employees, and a bit of good luck.
Over the last 15 years, the cleantech industry has grown at a record pace creating a volatility in the industry. The solar industry’s ups and downs are famous, and this “solar-coaster ride” has some important implications. Cleantech companies experience dramatically high rates of employee turn over, implementing layoffs or reductions in force (RIFs), and, all too common, the need to shut the doors entirely.
Clean technology start-ups and small, local businesses, like solar installers, all face the same reality of having no balance sheet to fund expensive legal battles. Due to these factors, companies in the cleantech industry are especially vulnerable to legal disputes that might quickly drain their much needed cash reserves or divert time away from the core business. For this reason, companies in the cleantech industry, even more so than companies in other industries, need to make sure that they have legal protections in place to minimize and avoid expensive legal battles.
One easy way to take proactive legal action at a company to minimize risk is by implementing mandatory employee arbitration policies. These types of agreements not to sue are becoming a ubiquitous facet of employed life for the precise reason that they help prevent excessive legal expenses.
Mandatory arbitration generally refers to an arbitration agreement that an employer requires new hires or existing employees to sign as a condition of employment or of continued employment. When an employer requires employees to sign an arbitration agreement as a condition of employment, it is critically important that the agreement be enforceable under state law. If the terms of the mandatory arbitration agreement are not in compliance with state law, the company may not be able to compel arbitration.
As companies grow, so do their liabilities. To proactively put in place a mandatory arbitration policy before any disputes arise is like buying insurance for the business.
