Investors sour on solar as free money dries up;
Home solar companies in the US dialed back their outlooks this week amid a pileup of challenges that are dragging the sector down. Investors took notice.
Sunrun Inc., SunPower Corp. and SolarEdge Technologies Inc. reported weaker-than-expected sales in the third quarter. The key culprits: higher interest rates, an oversupply of equipment and sharply reduced state-level incentives in California — the most important domestic market.
“This has been a volatile time,” Mary Powell, Sunrun’s chief executive officer, said on an earnings call
Her comments came shortly after Sunrun revealed that a drop in its stock price prompted the company to take a $1.2 billion charge to write down the value of its 2020 purchase of rival Vivint Solar.
It’s a surprising bout of turmoil for a renewable sector that rode a wave of enthusiasm for sustainable investing since before President Joe Biden’s election. But economic headwinds and California’s slashed rooftop subsidies have recently outweighed the generous incentives bestowed in the landmark climate law that Biden signed just 14 months ago.
No more green for the ‘green’ industries. Too bad!
Governments should not be involved in supporting any industry, period. If a company cannot survive on its own, it doesn’t deserve to exist. And A ( a socialist government) should not take money from B (the taxpayer) to give to C (a company) without the permission of B – that is immoral and has been going on for far too long. Doing it without permission at the point of a legal gun is highway robbery disguised as virtue.
Isn’t there a specific form of socialism that forces companies to do what the government demands of them… something beginning with F
Eggazktly (sic)
Every time, without fail, where the political scum gets their fingers in the business of business, they screw up and never ever pay for it.
Well, the way it is, it’s circular, the political scum gives other peoples money to the big business and the big business gives some back to the political scum.
See how it works?
In real life the lot of them would be in jail, that’s why they make corrupt laws.
The thing that’s always surprised me is the lack of interest in solar collectors. Those are the arrays comprised of evacuated tubes that collect solar radiation and turn it into ‘free’ heat. They’re remarkably efficient, many claiming in excess of 96% efficiency. Even in overcast conditions. Because they collect heat directly, keeping them ice and snow free isn’t a huge issue…as long as you have some sunlight.
In Latin American countries you see what look like hot water tanks on roof tops, basically primitive solar collectors.
https://imgs.search.brave.com/cywqS7vvxox6re_ha_Tg985GxcQVCp6E_0AoOFXaCSk/rs:fit:860:0:0/g:ce/aHR0cHM6Ly91cGxv/YWQud2lraW1lZGlh/Lm9yZy93aWtpcGVk/aWEvY29tbW9ucy8z/LzMwL1NvbGFyR2xv/YmFsMjAwN1YyLnBu/Zw
Sounds like there probably isn’t enough grift in them.
The obvious problem is that the free heat may or may not be usable for generating electricity…
It also doesn’t solve the space issue, with the Ivanpah which takes 1420 hectares (3500 acres) to produce 377MW, with a capacity factor around 30% and burns about 525 million cubic feet a year to start up the plant each day…
Compare that with Bruce at 932 Hectares which produces 4200 MW with a capacity factor of 89%…
Actually the Bruce’s capacity is 6400MW. Two units are down at the moment for refurbs that will keep the plant going until 2060 or so. Between now and wind and solar equipment will have to have been replaced two to four time. Experience has shown that turbines are only lasting half as long as advertised. Solar loses 1% efficiency per year of use.
Replacing the Bruce’s capacity with solar or wind would take an order of magnitude more land than the Bruce occupies. However, the unreliability of wind and solar would still require just as much reliable base load in the form of nuclear or fossil fuel plants. The net result would make electricity exorbitantly expensive. That has already been seen with the meagre contribution from the existing renewables so called investment. They have been a lead weight on the grid.
Quite right. Bruce is the world’s largest operating nuclear power plant. And based on current expectations, its eight reactors will have another three added to the station over the next 15 years.
And you are entirely correct about land use. This was calculated for Ontario in the early 1990s. You can find it here if you are interested.
https://wise.uwaterloo.ca/documents/jatin-nathwani/jn_books/jnenergyfor300yearspdf
I’m seeing mainshaft bearings on wind turbines blown completely apart after 2-1/2 years of operation.
DaninVan, there’s no interest in it because it’s very low grade heat. There’s essentially no energy in it that can be converted into high grade energy forms that our civilization requires like electricity. It cannot be concentrated into any useful or usable form.
And the very nature of it makes it useless in winter in temperate zone countries. Overcast makes an enormous difference. There’s a huge drop in energy if not subject to direct sunlight. The 96% claim is blatantly false.
And it’s not ‘free’ heat. You have to include all the energy that went into making all the components. By that measure, it’s a huge net drain. Essentially all it is is an inefficient way of relocating fossil fuel energy from somewhere else.
Latin America has no snow fool.
bverwey
Yeah, no volcanoes in Panama.
A few years ago I read endless opinion columns claiming the green thing made financial sense since hard-nosed venture capital companies were onside with the projects.
Apparently they didn’t realize that venture capitalism backed by the government is a whole lot more fun than the real kind.
The old saying about “running out of other peoples money” comes to mind.
Commie lite socialists always run out of other peoples money.
Bloomberg writes as if the green industry is a real industry supported by consumer demand and not government push.
Makes everything else they write very suspect.
Oh!
Who owns them? And what is his bias?
good chance its a red sea pedestrian .
but must be some deals out there for indigenous people to buy green stuff for where the sun dont shine .
Bloomberg LP is a private company with Bank of America as its largest shareholder. Wikipedia has a decent description of it. Bloomberg has Mark Carney as its Chair of the Board of Directors.
That’s surprising seeing how he screwed up at the BoC and now he wants to be Crime Minister of Bananada. May God save us from liberally minded, well intentioned, virtue signaling economists.
Don’t mind if those that created the fake companies and knew that there is no long term profit, go bankrupt and end up as homeless.
They supported the scam and should pay.
No sympathy.
It is just too bad that the idiot politicians used other people’s money to throw at them. They should end up homeless too.
No sympathy.
Maybe not the best way to look at it, though the low life should not expect any.
Cart before the horse.. Our? education system started producing green professionals that our? government felt obliged to give jobs too.. They call this growth.. I call it sabotage..
Bright eyed and bushy tailed sabotage.. A new economy that reeks of welfare for the rich.. Just how much debt is enough debt for Chad to move out of the poolhouse?.. Seeing as dollar for dollar everything green is a 75% downgrade.. How long are we going to put up with this BS?..
The carbon tax is not a carbon tax.. Its a green tax.. Green is so bad that carbon needs to be punished because of it.. Climate doom is computer model fantasy and anybody playing that game is either a lemming or a vested interest player.. Same same because promoting failure by taxing success is a dead end..
Take the money and run.. Is not a business plan.. Idiots..
“…an oversupply of equipment…”
__________________________________
I’m just a dumb businessman. Can someone tell me how an oversupply of equipment is detrimental is a business? Assuming it’s paid for, you now have a surplus available to you. This allows you to play around a little with your prices to make your product more appetizing to your potential customer. Additionally, you have stock that you might consider selling to another company in a region that you don’t service (so not a direct competitor).
An oversupply of equipment, seems to me like a financial benefit…unless of course they overextended themselves based on subsidies and now the bill is coming due and they don’t have all that sweet free money to fall back on.
I guess you never heard of inventory taxes.
Deferred revenue?
Something i might sell tomorrow or next week?
In all my years in business I was never taxed on inventory in house that I owned. Is this a new canadian communist tax?