EGEB: SolarEdge ($SEDG) goes big, 1,766 MW for Massachusetts, more

Electrek Green Energy Brief: A daily technical, financial, and political review/analysis of important green energy news. Featured Image Source.

SolarEdge, the Israeli Inverter maker posts a 70% increase in full-year revenue blowing far beyond analyst expectations. The stock was up yesterday almost 25% on the news, and if you are long on SEDG (first of all congrats on the new yacht), you tripled your money over the past year. We’ve covered SolarEdge products quite a bit on Electrek, but what is happening here is that they are becoming the de facto solar inverter maker with their DC voltage optimizer strategy vs. the more expensive micro-inverter strategy employed by many rivals.  Will they run away with the market? What new technologies will they bring to make going solar easier and more efficient? Stay tuned…

First ship crosses Arctic in winter without an icebreaker as global warming causes ice sheets to melt – Change is occurring. This is without doubt.

New Massachusetts bill seeks 1.77 GW storage target, quicker renewables transition – The proposals sets an energy storage target of 1,766 MW by 2025, and requires state regulators to set a 2030 target by 2020. This optimized amount of storage is estimated to cost $970 million to $1.35 billion. Considering the Massachusetts ratepayer benefits alone of $2.3 billion, 1,766 MW of storage provides net benefits to ratepayers with a benefit-cost ratio ranging from 1.7 to 2.4. About a year ago a report was released – State of Charge (pdf) – Massachusetts. The report called for 1,766MW of energy storage. It also gave a great image – see below – of annual savings to the state that would come from deploying this energy storage:

Keep these variables in mind as you consider the politicians you’re voting for and the legislation they’re supporting.

Vehicle-to-grid technology tested in ‘home laboratory’ – “At any given time, 95 percent of cars are parked and their the batteries free, which means stored power can potentially flow from car to house.” I go back and forth as to whether I think car batteries will be a real part of the power grid. These days I’m leaning more against it as I think electricity utilities will optimize their hardware – energy storage deployed by themselves – at prices that car owners wouldn’t be interested in, but maybe not. At a minimum – we’re still researching it.

One the tweet below – We’ve still got a real lot to go – 30% from coal + 32% from gas. However, we have come so far – and the volume of change is increasing (and also the rate). So we’ve got that going for us.

3/ The power mix in the world's second-largest electricity system has changed _significantly_ in 10 years: from 40% coal and 9% renewables, to 32% gas and 18% renewables https://t.co/a4UASG4rGN pic.twitter.com/zSK9FHj4ik

— Nat Bullard (@NatBullard) February 15, 2018

Featured image is from the Department of Energy SunShot program. This image was taken from a helicopter on April 24, 2014, using ND filters to prevent saturation. The image captures the direct solar reflectance from the heliostats and receiver to evaluate the glare and irradiance as part of a DOE project. Photo by Cliff Ho.

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