If you’ve been following solar industry news, you’re familiar with reports of some in the industry cozying up to monopoly utilities while continuing to paint themselves as solar champions. They rationalize this apparent paradox by using the same messaging we see in happy-feel-good TV ads from the utilities themselves: “We’re … [continued]
It’s a funny thing. The more you rattle the cage, the more the caged bird sings. Since I posted a link to Chet Henry’s piece on Red, Green, and Blue last week about the impressive salary pulled down by Solar Energy Industries Association President Rhone Resch, my inbox and voicemail … [continued]
A friend linked me to a story this week that made my blood boil. And oddly enough, it has absolutely nothing to do with investor-owned utilities. In fact, it shines a light on a growing concern about the Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA). As detailed in this excellent take-down by … [continued]
Not long ago, I wrote about Clean Power Finance and its President and CEO Nat Kreamer. At the time, Kreamer — a former military man — appeared to be serving as a “double agent,” playing both sides of the monopoly utilities’ crusade against rooftop solar. Several months later, the double … [continued]
After suffering nine stinging defeats over the past year and a half, big utilities seem to have learned that trying to stop the rooftop solar revolution by killing net energy metering is like standing in the way of a runaway freight train. That’s because everyone from legislators to lobbyists to … [continued]
Arizona Public Service is at it again. After failing to dismantle net energy metering in 2013, the monopoly utility company is aggressively pushing legislation to increase taxes on solar customers. And by all accounts, it has called in the big guns to try to make this happen. Last month, known … [continued]
Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick is not beating around the bush when it comes to making his state the greenest in the nation. The Green Communities Act he pushed in 2008 started Massachusetts down the road of expanded conservation and investment in renewable energy. One of his current goals is to … [continued]
In 2013, rooftop solar battles had two clear sides: a burgeoning solar industry bringing clean, renewable energy and consumer choice to the masses; and the monopoly utility industry looking to salvage its profit margins. After going undefeated in these battles, the solar industry is on a roll, building grassroots coalitions, … [continued]
The old saw goes that politics makes for strange bedfellows. Well, the same appears to be true in the battle over our energy future, judging by the looks of an exceptionally weird story that’s developing in the halls of the International Trade Commission. Here’s the rub: SolarWorld is a struggling … [continued]
