The Energy Show

Copyright 2019 - The Energy Show, Barry Cinnamon PG&E’s bankruptcy will have a dramatic effect on all electricity users in northern California — as well as utility investors, California taxpayers, and the solar industry in general. Moreover, the bankruptcy of one of the largest utilities in the country is a harbinger of the need to change the traditional utility business model. Not only are utilities experiencing competition from businesses and homeowners installing their own solar and storage systems (for less money), but utilities are also experiencing much greater than expected costs related to maintaining their transmission and distribution services. Devastating fires are more common, people are living in more fire-prone areas, our need for electricity is increasing … and this situation is likely to get worse. Although PG&E has been my biggest competitor for almost 20 years, they have established a reputation as the best (some would say “least bad) investor-owned solar utility in the country. Compared to almost all other utilities, PG&E has been ahead of the curve with solar, net metering, energy storage – influenced to a large degree by a far-sighted California Public Utilities Commission and state government. They are also staffed by committed and hard-working employees throughout their organization. Nevertheless, PG&E’s financial problems raises substantial issues for solar and non-solar customers alike. Meeting the conflicting needs of taxpayers, electricity customers and investors is a daunting legal and political challenge. To help sort through these issues, my guest on this week’s show is Angela Lipanovich, President and Founder of Estriatus Law. Among the topics we will cover include: - What happens in a corporate bankruptcy, and how did PG&E fare in their 2001 bankruptcy? - How do bonds taken out by PG&E affect electricity rates? - Would these bond repayments affect net metering reimbursements? - Would a bankruptcy judge force affected homeowners and businesses to accept less money for their losses? - What would be the electricity rate impact for every $10 billion in PG&E’s liabilities? - A bankruptcy judge can renegotiate corporate debts – what affect could that have on PG&E’s Power Purchase Agreements? - How must utilities change their tree trimming and maintenance practices to prevent future fires? - What is a practical long term solution to California’s expensive electricity? To learn more about the implications of PG&E’s bankruptcy, Listen Up to this week’s Energy Show with Angela Lipanovich.

Copyright 2019 - The Energy Show, Barry Cinnamon According the National Renewable Energy Lab (NREL) there are about 70 million residential and commercial buildings in the US that are suitable for rooftop solar. The Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA) estimates that there are about 1.6 million systems that have already been installed. So with less than 2 percent market penetration, we haven’t even scratched the surface. How long will it take for us to get to say, 10 million solar systems ... or 35 million, about half the rooftop capacity in the U.S.? Based on the concept of the technology adoption lifecycle, we can make some educated guesses. This concept addresses the rate at which new products are accepted by the market. Our guest on this week’s show is Jamie Johnston, Director at Vector Structural Engineering. Jamie is an industry thought leader and extremely passionate about solutions to the slow motion global warming train wreck. Vector provides residential and commercial solar certification letters for over a hundred companies in the U.S.(we use their services at Cinnamon Energy Systems). Jamie will share with us his insights into where we stand on the solar adoption curve — and how long he believes it will take us to get to that 35 million installed capacity. Interestingly, some of the implications of greater solar market penetration is not just more rooftop solar, but the need for ancillary services among customers, such as maintenance and system replacement. Jamie will also share his thoughts as dedicated rooftop solar evolves into complete energy systems — including storage and integration with other building systems such as HVAC and car charging.

Copyright 2019 - The Energy Show, Barry Cinnamon With the solar industry chaos of 2018 behind us, many of us are looking toward more predictable growth from 2019…at least until the Investment Tax Credit goes to zero for residential and 10% for commercial on December 31, 2021. Then again, we’re on the solar coaster, so it is unwise to be complacent about a rosy solar future — or the broader economy, for that matter. Here are my 10 predictions for 2019. 1. Inflation will hit residential solar installations hard 2. Good software and communications are the price of admission for future solar and battery systems 3. Supply chain issues with battery storage systems will persist 4. With a recession looming, financing will become even more important 5. U.S. solar manufacturing will continue its downward slide 6. PUCs will force utilities’ hands when it comes to grid reliability 7. Despite headwinds, batteries will continue their slow march toward 50% penetration 8. As pilot results roll in, uptake of VPPs will increase 9. Upgrades and maintenance will emerge as a key opportunity 10. Stubborn soft costs will impede further drops in residential solar prices As I wrap up these 2019 comments, I am humbled by Yogi Berra’s advice: “It’s tough to make predictions, especially about the future.” Nevertheless, I am confident in two key elements of our industry: We are doing the right thing for the global environment, and the economics of solar-plus-storage remain superior to any other energy source. I remain optimistic that — regardless of the next plunge in the solar coaster — our industry will continue to thrive over the long term. Please listen up to this Week’s Energy Show for the details on these 2019 Rooftop Solar and Storage predictions.

Copyright 2018 - The Energy Show, Barry Cinnamon Attention U.S. Department of Commerce: your well-intentioned efforts to help the U.S. solar panel manufacturing industry are not working. Even with 30%+ tariffs on imported solar panels and cells, the remaining U.S. manufacturers are struggling to stay competitive. The good news, as one would expect, is that there is strong demand for Made in the U.S.A. solar panels – both from ordinary consumers as well as government purchases. However, structural issues with the supply chain for solar components puts the remaining U.S. manufacturers at a substantial disadvantage. The reasons for these supply chain challenges are simple. Basically, many of the key components that go into solar modules are not manufactured in the U.S., including wafers, cells, EVA and junction boxes. And many of the components that are indeed available in the U.S. — such as glass, backsheets and aluminum frames — are significantly less expensive at comparable quality levels if purchased from overseas suppliers. To make matters even worse, these essential imported solar components are subjected to additional tariffs when imported from certain countries. Essentially, we are shooting ourselves in our foot if we expect U.S. solar manufacturers to be competitive when 30%+ tariffs are applied to most of the major solar components. A rational plan to make the U.S. competitive in solar manufacturing does not require government support. Instead, it requires government to get out of the way and set a long-term solar manufacturing policy. U.S. manufacturers would instantly be more competitive if they did not have to pay tariffs on imported solar components — particularly cells and aluminum solar frames. Once the U.S. solar manufacturing base is re-established and consistent, U.S. manufacturers could invest in domestic wafer, cell, junction box and other component manufacturing. How are U.S. manufacturers coping with competitive global issues of cell production and purchasing, U.S. production costs, cell and panel tariffs, local and federal regulations, and shifting national policies? The best way to answer this question is to speak with one of the most experienced U.S. solar panel manufacturers. My guest on this week’s show is Mamun Rashid, COO of Auxin Solar, based in San Jose, California. Auxin manufactures high quality poly and mono solar panels for residential and commercial customers. They also do original equipment manufacturing for tier-1 manufacturers who have “made in the USA” requirements. Please listen up to this week’s Energy Show for Mamun’s perspective on the opportunity and challenges for companies manufacturing solar panels in the U.S.

Copyright 2018, The Energy Show, Barry Cinnamon You know what they say: “Video killed the radio star.” Well I’m going out on a limb and adding video to this week’s podcast. But since my fans say I have a perfect face for radio, I’m not worried that this video podcast will affect my Arbitron ratings. Nevertheless, my guests on this video podcast are much more telegenic, so I encourage you to click through to this video link (https://youtu.be/yIG0KyWjI5w). A few months ago I had the pleasure of organizing and moderating a panel discussion about microgrids for the MIT Club of Northern California. Basically, a microgrid is a combination of solar, batteries, inverters, software and control electronics that allow customers — both residential and commercial — to operate independently of the grid. Interest in microgrids is skyrocketing for two reasons. First, the grid is becoming less reliable, while at the same time our society is becoming more dependent on electricity. Second, time of use electric rates now peak in late afternoons and evenings, making it much more profitable to store daytime solar generation in a battery and using that energy during peak electric periods. There are four factors limiting the growth of the microgrid industry: 1. The first is good energy policy that makes the economics of microgrids work for customers. Bernadette Del Chiaro, Executive Director of the California Solar Storage Association, joined us on this panel. Without a doubt, Bernadette is one of the best solar and battery policy experts in the entire country. 2. Next we need functional and affordable batteries. Peter Gibson, the head of North America Energy Storage Solutions for LG Chem, is the battery expert. LG Chem is one of the biggest battery manufacturers in the world. Their residential battery storage products are in such demand that they cannot make them fast enough. 3. Inverters are the heart of a microgrid. Lior Handelsman, Co-Founder of SolarEdge, shared his insights into the future of microgrids powered by smart inverters. In the way of background, SolarEdge is the inverter market leader, and has done a terrific job with software that is critical to successful microgrids. 4. Finally, cooperation from electric utilities is key to the widespread adoption of microgrids. New Community Choice Aggregation utilities have the potential to lead the way; the CEO of Peninsula Clean Energy, Jan Pepper, joined us. And I was especially happy to include another spice in our discussions. Listen up to this Week’s Energy show to learn about how each of these industry leaders are working today to deliver migrogrids to both residential and commercial customers. Please click through to this video link (https://youtu.be/yIG0KyWjI5w) for the entire MIT Microgrids panel discussion.

Copyright 2018 - The Energy Show, Barry Cinnamon It’s depressing that lithium batteries get almost all of the focus in the energy storage industry. Lithium batteries have a number of advantages, including high energy density, good longevity, declining costs and established integration with electronics, vehicles and stationary energy storage. Although ideal for residential and commercial storage applications, lithium ion chemistries are not great for long term and high capacity energy storage — which are the characteristics that many utility storage installations require. Flow batteries have the potential to meet these utility storage application needs. Flow batteries use two tanks of liquid electrolyte, separated by a special membrane, that flows between the anode and the cathode within the battery cell. Energy is stored in this liquid electrolyte instead of as part of the electrode material in conventional batteries. The energy storage capacity of a flow battery is related to the amount of liquid electrolyte — bigger tanks provide greater storage capacity. The power output of a flow battery depends on the size of the anode and cathode electrodes in the battery cell. Since their storage capacity is limited mostly by the size of the electrolyte tanks, flow batteries are great for grid-scale storage. They are also finding applications when sited alongside PV systems. Since the battery can absorb power in excess of what the grid or inverter can handle, inverters can be smaller — resulting in lower equipment costs and greater efficiency. I heard about new flow battery technology from my friends at NexTracker. I was initially hesitant to learn about flow batteries - one could say I’m in a lithium rut waiting for the commercialization of dual lithium crystalline reactor technology for interstellar travel. But when I understood the real-world benefits of Avalon’s batteries when integrated with utility-scale tracker installations, I was convinced. So on this week’s show we’re going with the flow. Our guest is Matt Harper, Co-Founder and Chief Product Officer of Avalon. I hope you tune in to this week's Energy Show as Matt explains the technology behind flow batteries, practical applications, availability of electrolytes, and Matt’s view of how flow batteries have the potential to meet our long duration energy storage needs.

Copyright 2018 - The Energy Show, Barry Cinnamon The bad news about global warming continues unabated. This fall the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (fondly referred to as the IPCC) sent up an emergency flare. According to Amjad Abdulla an IPCC board member and chief negotiator for the Alliance of Small Island States, “The report shows that we only have the slimmest of opportunities remaining to avoid unthinkable damage to the climate system that supports life, as we know it.“ Obviously, small island states are at the most immediate risk. But if the earth’s warming trend continues, many populated areas around the globe will essentially be uninhabitable. I read the entire report. It’s complex, dense, hard to understand and full of bureaucratese. There were two conclusions in the report that were especially surprising to me. First, unless the world acts immediately and intensively, there is almost no chance that global warming will be less than 1.5 degrees Celsius. The reason is that there is a lot of inertia in the earth’s climate system — we are already on a rapid warming trend. The second conclusion is that an immediate worldwide investment of roughly $900 billion per year will be required to stay below this 1.5% threshold. On a positive note, I learned a lot of new TLAs (Three Letter Acronyms). My personal belief is that our grandchildren will be saddled with the economic and sociological disruptions that global warming will cause. Nevertheless, there is a large portion of our population that remains skeptical about global warming and its potential impacts. One reason for this global warming divide relates to economics. Some industries — particularly those dependent on fossil fuels — will be negatively impacted (“harmed" is the non-bureaucratic term). On the other hand there will be many industries that will benefit…not only solar and wind, but also from all the jobs created from the transition away from fossil fuels: EVs, heat pumps, more extensive electrical infrastructure, control systems and as yet undeployed new energy technologies. As an solar enthusiast, I’m obviously biased. But the consequences of global warming are so severe that even the skeptics should consider immediate action as a form of an insurance policy. In case the skeptics are wrong about global warming, an investment now can avoid a disaster later. For more about the IPCC’s recommendations to stabilize and reverse global warming, listen to this week’s Energy Show.

Copyright 2018, The Energy Show - Barry Cinnamon One of my favorite Hemingway books is "The Sun Also Rises." It’s about Spain, bull fighting and a group of lost generation friends in Paris in the 1920s. But this show is an energy podcast, not a book report. So with apologies to Ernest Hemingway -- here in California -- the sun also rises. But it rises at night with battery storage. Governor Brown recently signed into law a bill called SB 700, which establishes an additional $800 million dollars of incentives for behind the meter battery storage. These incentives, part of the Self Generation Incentive Program (SGIP), are designed for both commercial and residential systems. SGIP is the biggest battery storage incentive program in the U.S. For the past year and a half, our battery storage customers have been using SGIP funding to reduce the costs of their combined solar and storage systems. These incentive programs don’t appear automatically. The California Solar and Storage Association (CALSSA) worked for three years to finally get this storage incentive passed. Bernadette Del Chiaro, Executive Director of CALSA, explains the key reason for these storage incentives: “What we’re trying to do is create a mainstream market for energy storage — just like we’ve done for solar photovoltaic systems.” Why did it take so long? There was intense opposition from electric utility business interests who do not want customers storing their own energy, just as they do not want their customers generating their own solar power. Utilities benefit financially when they install their own “grid-sized” batteries on their side of the meter, just as they benefit from large utility scale solar farms. From an overall perspective we still need utilities, not necessarily for electricity generation, but primarily for long distance transmission and local distribution of electricity. Utilities have provided a terrific service to the world for over 100 years. Now, with inexpensive solar and batteries, utility customers can install their own generation and storage systems. To learn more about why the Sun also Rises At Night with Batteries, Listen to this week’s Energy Show.

Copyright 2018 - The Energy Show, Barry Cinnamon People complain about high electric bills almost as often as they complain about the price of gas. And for two good reasons. First, utilities consistently raise their electric rates -- not only for inflation, but also to increase their profits. So even if you don’t change your habits, your electric bills will generally keep increasing (like my waistline). Depending on where you live, these rate increases can average 3% -7% per year. The second reason is that we are using more and more electricity. Our 21st century lifestyle is much more energy intensive: we have more appliances, electric vehicles, electronic toys and cellphones, use heat pumps for space conditioning and hot water, and rely on more air conditioning as the climate gets hotter. The average electricity consumption in single family homes in the US is 900 kwh per month. Although the average electricity cost around the country is 13.5 cents per kwh, there is a tremendous cost variation depending on location, climate, and cost of living. For example, in Hawaii, the average electricity cost is 33 cents per kwh. The official data for California indicates that the average cost of electricity is 20 cents per kwh. I question these averages because when I look at PG&E’s current electric rate, the baseline rate tier is 20 cents per kwh. Tier 2 electric rates (up to 400% of baseline electricity or about 400 kwh) is 27 cents a kwh. Tier 3 electric rates, defined as “super users” are 40 cents per kwh. If you require a lot of air conditioning, have a swimming pool, a bunch of networking and home entertainment equipment, or an electric vehicle, congratulations: you are likely a “super user.” Once you are in the super user tier -- over about 1300 kwh per month -- you are paying 40 cents for every kwh you use. Obviously, if your home has a sunny exposure, solar makes great sense. But many people do not have that option. So what can you do? The first step is to find out what is causing those high electric bills. Buy or borrow a gadget called a “Kill A Watt Meter” and do some electricity sleuthing around your home. Some of the electricity hogs that I’ve found over the years include a defective AC compressor motor, keeping the temperature too cool in the summer and too hot in the winter (the fan motor in your furnace uses a lot of electricity), pool pumps running more than required, old refrigerators, vampire energy loads, and an abundance of electronic gadgets (including lighting, security, music and networking systems). For more about the clever and insidious ways that our electricity providers separate us from our hard-earned dollars, tune in to this week’s Energy Show.

Copyright 2018 - The Energy Show, Barry Cinnamon We have all seen those big power plants outside cities that provide power -- historically from coal, oil and nuclear and now more recently, natural gas. These utility power plants have served us well for over a century. But technology is passing them by. These old central generation power plants are obsolete. They are more expensive than power generated by wind, solar and energy storage. Even some of the newest gas peaker plants under construction are destined to be obsolete within a decade. New power generating technologies – solar, wind, battery storage, distributed energy resources, virtual power plants, etc. — are steadily improving in terms of cost, duration and reliability. Unfortunately, commercial and residential electricity customers are saddled with the costs of existing power plants, even ones that have been installed recently. Utilities pass their costs of power generation, transmission and distribution directly to ratepayers. Moreover, utilities are guaranteed a 10% profit based on their net assets. Although they do indeed care about reliability and safety, utilities actually make more money when they own a lot of assets (higher profits) and charge high prices for power (higher revenues). These new clean, inexpensive power generation and storage technologies are turning the utility industry upside down. Commercial and residential customers can essentially purchase their own power plants for less money than utility-provided power. Listen up to this week’s Energy Show as we review the deteriorating economics of utility-based power plants, as well as the implications these new technologies are having on consumers throughout the United States.

Copyright 2018 - The Energy Show, Barry Cinnamon We take it for granted that you can install solar on your home or business anytime, just as you can make any other energy saving improvement. Unfortunately, the reality is there are a host of restrictions on solar and battery storage. Many of these restrictions are due to arbitrary regulations (solar panels cannot be visible from the street), as well as rules promulgated by utilities to maximize their profits. Riddle me this, Solarman: why does your local utility encourage you to install an 8 kw EV charger, but makes it extremely complicated (sometimes impossible) to install a 2 kw rooftop solar system? Incumbent industries have economic power behind them. Utilities spend hundreds of millions of dollars to suppress competition from rooftop solar, compared to the million or so dollars spent by most state solar industries. But polls show that 95% of the population favors solar. Although the solar industry is at a financial disadvantage, there are tens of millions of people in the U.S. that benefit - either directly or indirectly - from the solar industry. The challenge is organizing this grass roots army to advocate for cleaner and and more affordable energy sources. The Solar Rights Alliance was founded to empower these millions of solar citizens. Its mantra is everyone should have the right to generate his or her own power directly from the sun -- and that no monopoly or special interest should try to block or own the sun. Our special guest on this week’s Energy Show is Dave Rosenfeld, Executive Director of the Solar Rights Alliance. He’s spent his career building movements and institutions that expand freedom, liberty and justice including work with the National Public Radio, The Public Interest Research Group, and the Public Interest Network. Grass roots advocacy has been effective in making many big changes in our democracy, and Dave is working hard to deploy this growing army of solar enthusiasts to make solar cost effective and available to everyone.

Copyright 2018 - The Energy Show, Barry Cinnamon Solar combined with battery storage seems like magic to many residential and commercial customers. With a million and a half systems installed in the U.S., the question is no longer: “does solar work?” Instead, customers want to know how much money they will save with a system. And commercial customers are even more diligent about accurate savings predictions. There are a plethora of “solar calculators” on websites all over the internet. But these crude calculators do not take into account detailed weather data, shading, orientation, equipment parameters and utility rates. Surprisingly, the utility rate information is hard to get, extremely detailed, and changes more often than import tariffs. And correlating hourly solar output data with these utility rates, time periods, rate tiers, fixed fees and demand charges can be a programming nightmare. I’ve had experience with huge spreadsheets that did these calculations for rates all over the country. Just thinking about a spreadsheet with 35,000 rows of 15 minute interval data is enough to make me reach for the Advil. Traditionally, solar performance calculators only had to model energy flows in two directions: to the building or to the grid. With batteries there is a third path for the energy to flow, making it exponentially more complicated to optimize savings from a particular system design. Dedicated software tools such as Energy Toolbase provide an accurate software platform for modeling the economics of solar and storage products — and also provide professional proposal tools. My guest on this week's Energy Show is Adam Gerza, Chief Operating Officer of Energy Toolbase. Adam gained his solar chops after many years in the commercial solar industry. He knows the business and knows how to crunch the numbers. So leave the headaches to Energy Toolbase, and listen up to this week's Energy Show as we speak with Adam about his company, solution and the solar + storage market.

Copyright 2018 - The Energy Show - Barry Cinnamon Energy storage is critical to our ability to eliminate the use of fossil fuels. Basically, we need a way to store the abundance of daytime solar and use this energy at night. Although lithium ion batteries have been getting most of the attention, fuel cells provide another way to convert fuels into electricity. A fuel cell is an electro-chemical cell that converts the chemical energy from a fuel into electricity through a reaction of hydrogen or another hydrocarbon fuel, such as gasoline or natural gas, with oxygen. The history of fuel cells goes back over a hundred years — in fact, their first commercial use came from NASA to power orbital space craft. Fuel cells are different than batteries because a battery produces energy from a chemical reaction that is already in the battery, whereas a fuel cell requires a continuous source of fuel and oxygen to sustain the chemical reaction. The great thing about fuel cell technology is they can continue to supply energy for as long as fuel and oxygen are supplied. However, fuel cells can either be clean and renewable power sources — or just as polluting as fossil fuels — depending on their fuel source. Currently, most fuel cells use hydrogen as their fuel. Although the chemical reaction of hydrogen with atmospheric oxygen is emission-free (the only byproduct is water), the source of the hydrogen is problematic. Almost 100% of the hydrogen gas used for fuel cells and industrial processes comes from reforming natural gas. As a result, just as much CO2 is produced when hydrogen is used as a fuel, as if the natural gas were to be combusted directly. Nevertheless, future processes in which ordinary water is electrolyzed into its components hydrogen and oxygen can indeed produce hydrogen perfectly cleanly — as long as solar or wind are used to power the process. More and more fuel cells are finding their way into the conventional power and transportation industries. Bloom Energy is successfully selling their natural gas-powered fuel cells to customers that need a reliable source of backup power. And Toyota has rolled out their Murai hydrogen fuel cell car in areas that have sufficient hydrogen filling stations (most of which are in California). For more about the underlying technology and opportunities for fuel cells, tune in to this week’s Energy Show.

Copyright 2018-The Energy Show, Barry Cinnamon When a business or homeowner gets a new rooftop solar installation, the second question they always ask is “how often do I need to clean my solar panels.” We’ll answer that question on this week’s show — taking into account the different effects of rain, dust and electric rates. BTW, the first question people always ask is “how do I read my electric bill;” but that’s a topic for another show. Rooftop solar panels get dirty primarily from wind-blown dust and pollen. Birds are usually not a problem unless your last name is Hitchcock and you live in Bodega Bay. As panels get dirtier, their output declines. A small amount of soiling — say a light dusty film — may only cause a 5 percent output decline. However, when panels get very dirty — perhaps in an agricultural area or location that does not get regular rainfall — the output decline can be greater than 20 percent. A good heavy rainstorm will usually wash away most of the accumulated soiling. I use the term “usually” because on panels that are tilted at about 5 degrees or less, the rain may leave a puddle of muddy debris along the lower edge of the panel. When this puddle dries, sometimes a thick layer of dirt accumulates along the lower row of cells (sometimes moss and weeds may even grow in these areas). Depending on the design of the system, this small accumulation of dirt can cause a very significant decrease in output. So the answer to the question: “how often should I clean my solar panels” really depends on five factors: your location (does it rain regularly or only during certain months), the tilt angle of your panels (steeply tilted panels tend to stay much cleaner than panels that are close to horizontal), the amount of wind blown dust, your electric rate (if your electric rate is high then it is more worthwhile to clean your panels), and the cost to clean your panels. If you have a large solar array at a low tilt angle in a dry climate with high electricity costs, our basic advice is to clean your panels once a year. Under these circumstances the additional electricity output from clean panels will be much greater than the cleaning costs. On the other hand, if you have a small array in an area that rains regularly, then it may only make sense to clean your panels every five years or so. Here in California it generally does not make a lot of sense to clean your panels in the late fall or winter during the rainy season. Regardless of your circumstances, please make sure you clean your panels with soapy or treated water to prevent damage from mineral deposits. Contact your solar contractor or maintenance company if you would like your system cleaned professionally. For more about keeping your solar system operating at top efficiency, please Listen Up to this week’s edition of the Energy Show.

Copyright 2018 - The Energy Show - Barry Cinnamon There are there are three market segment for solar in the U.S.: residential, utility and commercial. Based on some rough math, in 2018 we expect to install 5 to 7 million solar panels on homes in the U.S. In areas with high residential electric rates, paybacks are usually in the range of 4-8 years. But the utility solar segment is much larger: about 20 million solar panels will be installed by utilities in 2018. Utilities realize that it is cheaper to generate power with solar compared to coal or nuclear generation. Moreover, the combination of solar and batteries is projected to be even cheaper than natural gas in a few years. The commercial solar segment has been growing, but has been challenged by a lack of efficient financing, slow decision making, and relatively high costs. But this market segment is poised to grow much more quickly in the coming years. Standardized lease, PPA (Power Purchase Agreement) and PACE (Property Assessed Clean Energy) financing is now available. Cheaper solar panels, inverters and rooftop installation techniques are reducing up front costs. And commercial customer decision making is accelerating now that a number of national retailers (Costco, Staples, Target, Safeway), tech companies (Microsoft, Apple, Google), casinos and data centers have made rooftop solar a standard part of all their buildings. Quite simply, the biggest advantage of rooftop solar to commercial customers is financial. As with the residential and utility segments, almost any commercial building can reduce their electricity costs by 20-40% (net of financing costs). Paybacks are in the range of 3-8 years, easy financing is available for both for-profit and non-profit businesses, and even tenant-occupied buildings with triple net leases can benefit. As a result, the acres and acres of flat roof buildings around the country are destined to be put to work generating clean, renewable power. For more about commercial solar for businesses of all sizes, Listen Up to this week’s Energy Show.