I chat with Sunrun CEO Mary Powell on the future of solar, the shift to a "clean energy lifestyle," and why the tech bros need to rethink their nuclear obsession.
Why do you have to talk about nuclear enthusiasts as “tech bros” and use words like “virile”? What does this add to the conversation? I know plenty of passionate, enthusiastic, female nuclear power advocates, and they have an important element to add to the conversation. I like your newsletter, but throwing weirdly gendered shade on other clean power advocates doesn’t seem helpful.
I dont disagree that there are female nuclear power advocates, but the ratio is pretty stark. Regardless, there's some missing context here, which is that for years dr volts was hounded by overeager, mostly male nuclear obsessives on twitter. In general, im for letting David be David
We have the nuclear vs renewables discussion going on here in BC, Canada also, and I am quite convinced that nuclear does just have more big and shiny appeal than the wind and solar technologies that have been getting dumped on for the past 10 years (better recycle those blades and panels!).
I am less sanguine about power outages in the future. Droughts have already seriously impacted hydro power, to the extent that China had to backtrack on coal phase out so their people wouldn't cook in heat waves. The drought plus heatwave plus fire scenario could easily cause long and deadly outages where they did not exist before. Meanwhile there are big industrial forces like bitcoin, AI, and LNG that are waiting in the wings for power. Finally, although renewables will theoretically provide cheaper electricity than gas and coal plants, I would not trust the oil and gas industry, in its final throes, not to suddenly decide to buy up electricity supply and crank up the prices for the little guy.
I saw a google ad for Solar installs from my power company, Dominion Power (Virginia) to install solar, so I called up the number. In 5 minutes, the rep said, oh you're in Prince William Country - that's the only County in the state we don't work in.
When a county is so bureaucratically backwards the STATE POWER COMPANY won't do business in your area....that is almost medal worthy in it's stupidity.
I last looked into solar in mid 2016 and even than only got one company to call me back. They said up front they were adding in 25% markup due to my county shenanigans. Sigh
To my point, this article from Canary Media sums up the huge roadblock the utilities and their supporters have placed in the public discourse on rooftop solar. Kudos to the team at M.Cubed Consulting for doing the analysis to refute the false claim that rooftop solar makes electricity more expensive for all consumers. This claim is just nonsense.
I was rather disappointed by the lack of clarity in the responses provided by Mary Powell, the CEO of SunRun. As much as David tried to refocus her attention to answering his questions, she resisted and responded with more of her marketing agenda. For me, a California homeowner who was fortunate enough to get our solar panels and battery system installed just under the wire to qualify for NEM2 rates, I found her dodging the issue of the CPUC's decision to kill rooftop solar really disappointing. The big issue to solve is how to move forward from the dismal place we find ourselves in regarding adoption of rooftop solar. Mary had nothing to say about this important issue. She was laser focused on telling us how SunRun is pivoting from selling solar panels only to selling batteries and other related equipment in order to stay in business. Good for them. However - let's not give up on rooftop solar.
Great interview. Such wonderful enthusiasm contrasted to doomer degrowthers who seem to inhabit my hometown climate "activist" world. I'm imagining her showing up in front of some taciturn Vermont PUC commissioners for the first time.
On the side subject of tech's recent obsession with nuclear. Clearly part stems, among a noisy cohort of them, from a long-standing skepticism of depending on natural, low-density, variable wind and solar. They want their dilithium crystals and warp drive.
The other part is more recent and is the big tech companies' adoption of not just 24/7 clean energy accounting or scoring, but the idea that they need to immediately score 24/7/100%, since they were "100%" (actually "net zero") in the previous annual accounting. Somebody needs to get over this, and use their resources to push and pull the system up by keeping the momentum of wind, solar, storage, electrification/DR & transmission. If I heard correctly it sounded like Mary thought the tech companies might be considering helping folks electrify (when renewables are saturated) in return for some kind of RECs or offsets for the remaining apparent emissions increase if they only score 80% on the 24/7 accounting. I like that, even though I've thought that RECs should have gone away ten years ago.
Since we don't have markets in most places which allow Octopus Energy or similar to have "Fan Club" retail rates and provide incentives for smart electrification, instead, when Google/Amazon/MS etc. do a PPA with a rural wind/solar/battery facility, they could also offer a variety of electrification and TOU incentives to the neighbors, even if those folks aren't served by the same companies wheeling their power around. Good politics too. Really good IMHO. And then the tech bros could count some of the local heat and transport decarbonization as "offsets." All orchestrated by Sunrun or similar.
I'm a satisfied California Sunrun customer. I wanted Sunrun to be responsible for the system installation, performance & maintenance, not me. My 10 panel system was installed in 2016, when regulations only allowed 10% additional capacity above a customers' existing annual load. Fast forward to 2024, when I now have the added loads of a BEV & a heat pump. I'll be interested to see how much these new loads exceed my existing solar system capacity. My 20 year Sunrun contract doesn't allow for any system expansion, but it's been reported that Enphase has an independent “secondary” system scenario that would not void the existing NEM benefits of my Sunrun system.
My California Community Choice Aggregator power supplier, Sonoma Clean Power, now has a program administered by EV Energy that paid me $100 to enroll, and compensates me for limiting my EV charging to off-peak hours, from 12 am to 3 pm. Daytime charging maximizes my solar utilization. This seems to be a new variation on the VPP concept. I'm hoping that they'll include V2G, when the PUC & utility allow it.
ev.energy is an app that helps EV owners charge their vehicles more efficiently:
Solar feature: Automatically charges your EV when your solar panels are generating electricity. The app uses your home address, local weather, and information about your solar panels to predict how much electricity your home will generate.
Why do you have to talk about nuclear enthusiasts as “tech bros” and use words like “virile”? What does this add to the conversation? I know plenty of passionate, enthusiastic, female nuclear power advocates, and they have an important element to add to the conversation. I like your newsletter, but throwing weirdly gendered shade on other clean power advocates doesn’t seem helpful.
I dont disagree that there are female nuclear power advocates, but the ratio is pretty stark. Regardless, there's some missing context here, which is that for years dr volts was hounded by overeager, mostly male nuclear obsessives on twitter. In general, im for letting David be David
Ok, I'm sorry for his experience. I guess I hang out with a more civil corner of the pro nuke space!
We have the nuclear vs renewables discussion going on here in BC, Canada also, and I am quite convinced that nuclear does just have more big and shiny appeal than the wind and solar technologies that have been getting dumped on for the past 10 years (better recycle those blades and panels!).
I am less sanguine about power outages in the future. Droughts have already seriously impacted hydro power, to the extent that China had to backtrack on coal phase out so their people wouldn't cook in heat waves. The drought plus heatwave plus fire scenario could easily cause long and deadly outages where they did not exist before. Meanwhile there are big industrial forces like bitcoin, AI, and LNG that are waiting in the wings for power. Finally, although renewables will theoretically provide cheaper electricity than gas and coal plants, I would not trust the oil and gas industry, in its final throes, not to suddenly decide to buy up electricity supply and crank up the prices for the little guy.
I saw a google ad for Solar installs from my power company, Dominion Power (Virginia) to install solar, so I called up the number. In 5 minutes, the rep said, oh you're in Prince William Country - that's the only County in the state we don't work in.
When a county is so bureaucratically backwards the STATE POWER COMPANY won't do business in your area....that is almost medal worthy in it's stupidity.
I last looked into solar in mid 2016 and even than only got one company to call me back. They said up front they were adding in 25% markup due to my county shenanigans. Sigh
This is classic Dominion and classic PWC
To my point, this article from Canary Media sums up the huge roadblock the utilities and their supporters have placed in the public discourse on rooftop solar. Kudos to the team at M.Cubed Consulting for doing the analysis to refute the false claim that rooftop solar makes electricity more expensive for all consumers. This claim is just nonsense.
https://www.canarymedia.com/articles/solar/californias-rooftop-solar-is-a-benefit-not-a-cost-to-the-state
I was rather disappointed by the lack of clarity in the responses provided by Mary Powell, the CEO of SunRun. As much as David tried to refocus her attention to answering his questions, she resisted and responded with more of her marketing agenda. For me, a California homeowner who was fortunate enough to get our solar panels and battery system installed just under the wire to qualify for NEM2 rates, I found her dodging the issue of the CPUC's decision to kill rooftop solar really disappointing. The big issue to solve is how to move forward from the dismal place we find ourselves in regarding adoption of rooftop solar. Mary had nothing to say about this important issue. She was laser focused on telling us how SunRun is pivoting from selling solar panels only to selling batteries and other related equipment in order to stay in business. Good for them. However - let's not give up on rooftop solar.
Great interview. Such wonderful enthusiasm contrasted to doomer degrowthers who seem to inhabit my hometown climate "activist" world. I'm imagining her showing up in front of some taciturn Vermont PUC commissioners for the first time.
On the side subject of tech's recent obsession with nuclear. Clearly part stems, among a noisy cohort of them, from a long-standing skepticism of depending on natural, low-density, variable wind and solar. They want their dilithium crystals and warp drive.
The other part is more recent and is the big tech companies' adoption of not just 24/7 clean energy accounting or scoring, but the idea that they need to immediately score 24/7/100%, since they were "100%" (actually "net zero") in the previous annual accounting. Somebody needs to get over this, and use their resources to push and pull the system up by keeping the momentum of wind, solar, storage, electrification/DR & transmission. If I heard correctly it sounded like Mary thought the tech companies might be considering helping folks electrify (when renewables are saturated) in return for some kind of RECs or offsets for the remaining apparent emissions increase if they only score 80% on the 24/7 accounting. I like that, even though I've thought that RECs should have gone away ten years ago.
Since we don't have markets in most places which allow Octopus Energy or similar to have "Fan Club" retail rates and provide incentives for smart electrification, instead, when Google/Amazon/MS etc. do a PPA with a rural wind/solar/battery facility, they could also offer a variety of electrification and TOU incentives to the neighbors, even if those folks aren't served by the same companies wheeling their power around. Good politics too. Really good IMHO. And then the tech bros could count some of the local heat and transport decarbonization as "offsets." All orchestrated by Sunrun or similar.
Mary Powell, can't you speed it up a bit like China is doing and install some solar Farms?
I'm a satisfied California Sunrun customer. I wanted Sunrun to be responsible for the system installation, performance & maintenance, not me. My 10 panel system was installed in 2016, when regulations only allowed 10% additional capacity above a customers' existing annual load. Fast forward to 2024, when I now have the added loads of a BEV & a heat pump. I'll be interested to see how much these new loads exceed my existing solar system capacity. My 20 year Sunrun contract doesn't allow for any system expansion, but it's been reported that Enphase has an independent “secondary” system scenario that would not void the existing NEM benefits of my Sunrun system.
My California Community Choice Aggregator power supplier, Sonoma Clean Power, now has a program administered by EV Energy that paid me $100 to enroll, and compensates me for limiting my EV charging to off-peak hours, from 12 am to 3 pm. Daytime charging maximizes my solar utilization. This seems to be a new variation on the VPP concept. I'm hoping that they'll include V2G, when the PUC & utility allow it.
ev.energy is an app that helps EV owners charge their vehicles more efficiently:
Solar feature: Automatically charges your EV when your solar panels are generating electricity. The app uses your home address, local weather, and information about your solar panels to predict how much electricity your home will generate.
I would love to hear what folks would suggest to offer low cost easy to use EV charging for apartment households. My thoughts here
https://medium.com/areas-producers/ev-charging-for-low-and-middle-income-apartment-households-aa75fd586306?sk=121f10bd65ffc4a6fe6b184100fbdbc4