700+ Solar Companies Ask For Stronger Solar Legislation From Congress

Published

3 years ago

September 12, 2021

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Solar power keeps getting cheaper and keeps growing year after year, now accounting for nearly half of new power capacity in the United States. But coal and fossil methane (also deceivingly called “natural gas”) power plants need to be retired more quickly than they have been. We need to cut emissions more quickly than we have been cutting them or else we’re going to face climate catastrophes beyond what we can imagine and human society as a whole will be hurt and tested like never before.

With that in mind, 700+ solar companies would like to see stronger action from Congress in support of solar power (and, naturally, solar companies would rather make more money, not less). They sent a joint letter to Congress asking for 6 specific things to provide a boost to the solar industry. The first thing on the list: extend the federal solar tax credit (Investment Tax Credit), which provides a 30% reduction in the cost of a solar project.

Second on the list is “Address financing challenges and shortfalls by adding direct pay provisions to the ITC and help the industry reach ambitious deployment targets.”

They also now want standalone energy storage projects — not just energy storage projects connected to solar power systems — to be eligible for the aforementioned 30% ITC.

Furthermore, they are asking for the federal government itself to invest in solar power projects, as well as transmission, interconnection, and grid resiliency projects.

Last — but not least — on the list: “Support training programs and equitable policies that continue to build a strong, diverse solar workforce.”

The Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA) highlights, “The solar industry is now a $25 billion industry that employs over 231,000 Americans in quality, high-paying jobs across all 50 states. To meet President Biden’s 2035 clean energy goal, the size of the solar workforce must quadruple to more than 900,000 Americans.”

“The science is clear: we must rapidly decarbonize the electric grid to mitigate the worst impacts of climate change, and the solar Investment Tax Credit is the most effective policy we have to drive solar deployment in the United States,” said SEIA president and CEO Abigail Ross Hopper. “The ITC is also a proven job creator, and after years of policy whiplash, it’s time that we give clean energy businesses the policy certainty they need to clean up our grid and create the millions of jobs necessary to build an equitable clean energy economy.”

Will the voice of 700+ companies, a $25 billion industry, be enough to push for these solar policy commitments from Congress? Will the industry at least see an extension of the 30% solar tax credit? It’s hard to say. The last extension was supposed to be … the last extension. But that’s not the first time it was supposed to be the last one. At the end of the day, the solar tax credit, and everything else on that list, serves a lot of bipartisan policy goals. That said, Congress is not always logical. It seldom is, in fact — even on issues that are very popular across the US.

If you’d like to ensure a solid tax credit for a rooftop solar project or even ground-mount solar project, you may want to play it safe and make the commitment soon. If you decide to do so, and you decide Tesla is the company you want to go with due to its low pricing and perhaps other factors, feel free to use my Tesla referral code — ts.la/zachary63404 — for $100 of (and a bit of a bonus for me).

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Environment

Cybertruck backlog runs out, Model S gets stuck, GM hits a sales milestone

Published

5 hours ago

November 5, 2024

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Cybertruck backlog runs out, Model S gets stuck, GM hits a sales milestone

On today’s episode of Quick Charge, Tesla’s Cybertruck is now available in Canada – and, like in the US, there’s no waiting! Plus, we’ve got an “actually” smart summon Tesla that’s actually stuck, GM reaches a sales milestone, and we get a brand-new title sponsor!

Today’s episode is the first with our new title sponsor, BLUETTI – a leading provider of portable power stations, solar generators, and energy storage systems.

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New episodes of Quick Charge are recorded, usually, Monday through Thursday (and sometimes Sunday). We’ll be posting bonusLucid proves than an EV company can keep its promises while Xiaomi teams up with Chevrolet and Honda to prove – at least conceptually – that records are made to be broken. audio content from time to time as well, so be sure to follow and subscribe so you don’t miss a minute of Electrek’s high-voltage daily news!

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Environment

This ‘supercharger on wheels’ brings fast charging to you [update]

Published

7 hours ago

November 4, 2024

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This 'supercharger on wheels' brings fast charging to you [update]

Mobile car care company Yoshi Mobility launched a DC fast charging EV mobile unit that it likens to “a supercharger on wheels.”

November 4, 2024 update: Yoshi Mobility will only be charging EVs on the side of the road now – it announced today that it’s selling its fleet fueling operation to EZFill Holdings (Nasdaq: EZFL).

It was originally founded as a direct-to-consumer, mobile fueling business in 2016, but now it’s going to focus on mobile EV charging, virtual vehicle inspections for partners like Uber and Turo, and onsite preventative maintenance.

Bryan Frist, Yoshi Mobility’s CEO & cofounder, said, “By spinning off our fuel business and focusing all of our energy on solving hair-on-fire problems that fleet owners face, we are meeting the changing needs of enterprise customers while making the future of transportation safer, cleaner, and more sustainable.”

May 22, 2024: Yoshi Mobility saw that its existing customers needed mobile EV charging in places where infrastructure has yet to be installed, so the Nashville-based company decided to bring the mountain to Moses.

“We recognized a demand among our customers for convenient daily charging, reliable private charging networks, and proper charging infrastructure to support their fleet vehicles as they transition to electric,” said Dan Hunter, Yoshi Mobility’s chief EV officer and cofounder.

The company says its 240 kW mobile DC fast charger, which can turn “any EV” into a mobile charging unit, is the first fully electric mobile charger available. It can provide multiple charges in a single trip but doesn’t detail how they charge the DC fast charger or who manufactured it. (I asked for more details, and they replied that they won’t disclose client names or the manufacturer of its DC fast charger yet.)

Yoshi is launching its mobile charger on two GM BrightDrop Zevo 600s and will introduce additional vehicles throughout 2024. It aims for full commercialization by Q1 2025. (I wonder if the Zevo 600 ever charges itself? Yes, I asked that too.)

Yoshi Mobility says it’s already deployed its EV charging solutions to service “major OEMs, autonomous vehicle companies, and rideshare operators” across the US. Its initial customers are made up of large EV operators managing “hundreds” of light-duty vehicles requiring up to 1 megawatt of energy per day that don’t yet have grid-connected EV chargers. I’ve asked Yoshi for details of who it’s working with, and will update if they share that info.

The company says pricing is based on location and enterprise charging needs. Once under contract for service, the service will be deployed to US-based customers within 10 days.

To date, Yoshi Mobility has raised more than $60 million, with investments from GM Ventures, Bridgestone, ExxonMobil, and Y-Combinator in Silicon Valley.

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Marqeta shares plunge more than 30% on big forecast miss

Published

7 hours ago

November 4, 2024

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Marqeta shares plunge more than 30% on big forecast miss

Marqeta celebrates its initial public offering at the Nasdaq on June 9, 2021.

Source: The Nasdaq

Marqeta shares tumbled more than 30% in extended trading on Monday after the company issued weaker-than-expected guidance for the fourth quarter.

Here’s how the company did compared with Wall Street estimates, based on a survey of analysts by LSEG:

Loss per share: 6 cents adjusted vs. a loss of 5 cents expected
Revenue: $128 million vs. $128.1 million expected

While third-quarter results showed a slight disappointment on the top and bottom lines, Marqeta’s forecast for the current period was more concerning.

The payment processing firm said revenue in the fourth quarter will increase 10% to 12% from a year earlier. Analysts were looking for growth of more than 17%, according to LSEG.

Marqeta, which primarily functions as a card-issuing platform, attributed the guidance miss to “heightened scrutiny of the banking environment and specific customer program changes.” The company has been struggling for a while, and its stock is now down more than 80% from its peak in 2021, the year it went public. The stock was down 15% for the year prior to the report.

Total processing volume of $74 billion was up more than 30% from a year earlier. Net revenue and gross profit were up 18% and 24%, respectively.

Marqeta’s digital commerce business sells payment technology designed to detect potential fraud and ensure that money is properly routed. It also issues customized physical cards that look like a credit or debit card that can be used for point-of-sale purchases.

The company has been trying to break into the buy now, pay later business with a recently launched product called Marqeta Flex. The service brings BNPL from lenders such as Affirm or Klarna to any credit card wherever Mastercard and Visa are accepted.

“It’s an orchestration layer, but it’s tied to issuing and processing and disputes and chargebacks,” CEO Simon Khalaf told CNBC at Money2020 in Las Vegas last week. “So it is not actually a Wild West in BNPL. It is actually very well established. And there is a reason why a lot of people are jumping to it.”