The guys take on the second show of the year and first in a series of high profile guests confirmed in the upcoming months. SEIA president Abigail Ross Hopper calls in and reviews her take on the Nations Renewable Energy direction from the front lines in Washington DC offering deep insights into where we are headed.

www.seia.org

Questions covered included:

1. Please tell us about SEIA and your background.

2. What is the general feeling or mood from both industry and government across the nation?

3. Tell us about your proposal to the white house for solar.

4. What are your expectations for the pending tariff issue?

5. What can you tell us about how the new tax code could affect solar if at all?

6. We are here in Maui, with a variety of progressive utility programs and technologies being deployed and tested (like rapid shutdown inverters, on-grid energy storage.) Do you have a message for our listeners?

7. Are you familiar with how our representatives from Hawaii are playing a role in the discussion in DC?

8. What is your wish-list for solar throughout the USA and the world?

9. Anything you would like to ad that we didn’t cover?

Additional areas of focus included:

• Community solar

• Abby's message to residents of Hawaii and Maui

• Where we will be in 5 years? Adoption rates nationally? Storage? EV’s

• What's happening to the industry and how are businesses changing

In post interview and future focus the fellas dig into some aspects of the tax plan that will negatively impact solar deployments: BEAT and reduced tax equity available for funded projects PPA's are core points to look at.

DOE begins rounds of funding for R&D into two key forecasting models that will help energy producers predict the total amount of energy available on the grid.

24-48 hour model for weather forecasting

0-6 hour model specifically focused on cloud cover and production availability

NEW & EVENTS

https://www.facebook.com/Teslarati/posts/1370421276396404

http://www.latimes.com/world/asia/la-fg-china-solar-theft-20180109-story,amp.html

https://www.greentechmedia.com/amp/article/panasonic-ramps-up-solar-cell-production-at-teslas-buffalo-gigafactory

https://www.mauielectric.com/Documents/clean_energy_hawaii/producing_clean_energy/DER_newsletter_Jan2018.pdf

FUTURE FOCUS

https://www.greentechmedia.com/amp/article/doe-invests-12-million-to-improve-solar-forecasting

TAXES

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/powerpost/paloma/the-energy-202/2017/12/21/the-energy-202-the-gop-tax-plan-is-a-windfall-for-oil-and-gas-industry/5a3afa4d30fb0469e883fd40/?utm_term=.8a7635f2ae2d