What to Make of SunPower’s Bankruptcy

Current conditions: Tropical Storm Debby will make landfall again somewhere between Myrtle Beach and Charleston, South Carolina, tonight • Torrential rain brought severe flooding to Mecca in Saudi Arabia, where extreme heat killed more than 1,000 pilgrims in June • Non-essential outdoor lighting has been banned in China’s megacity of Hangzhou to conserve energy amid a scorching heat wave.

THE TOP FIVE

1. Tim Walz supercharges Kamala Harris’ climate cred

Vice President Kamala Harris yesterday tapped Minnesota Governor Tim Walz to be her running mate in the 2024 presidential election, delighting the climate left. Of all the finalists reportedly in contention, Walz had the most impressive clean energy and environmental accomplishments:

• Within months of being sworn in as governor of Minnesota in 2019, Walz set a goal for his state to get its electricity from 100% carbon-free sources by 2050. By the time Walz signed actual emissions legislation into law last year, he’d set an even more ambitious timeline — carbon-free electricity by 2040. The bill also streamlined permitting, set a minimum wage for employees constructing large-scale utility projects, and included an environmental justice provision to keep energy from waste incineration plants in frontline communities from counting toward the 2040 goal.
• Walz secured a $2 billion budget package that included grid improvements, solar panels on state-owned buildings, an electric-vehicle rebate program, heat pump grants and rebates, a green bank, and more.
• He signed a transportation bill to overhaul transit hubs, expand passenger rail service, improve infrastructure, and offer electric bike credits.
• Earlier this summer, Walz announced a $200 million grant to reduce food-related pollution, including protecting and restoring carbon-absorbing peatlands, improving food waste programs, and replacing gas-powered agricultural machinery with trucks that run on electricity or clean fuel.

In a statement, Evergreen Action Executive Director Lena Moffitt applauded Walz’s “masterclass in how to govern in a way that meaningfully improves people’s lives and sets the state up for a thriving future.” Cassidy DiPaola, the communications director at Fossil Free Media and a spokesperson for the Make Polluters Pay campaign, likewise acknowledged Walz’s progress on green issues, nodding to his “evolution into a climate champion.” She added that Walz has more than proven himself at the state level and that “his ability to connect climate policy to the everyday concerns of Midwestern and rural voters could prove invaluable in building broader support for climate action.”

2. New data shows how Americans are using the IRA

The Treasury Department today released new data that offers the most significant insight yet into how Americans are actually using the Inflation Reduction Act. The numbers show more than 3 million households used the IRA’s subsidies for homeowners last year, collectively saving more than $8 billion on things like solar panels, batteries, heat pumps, insulation, and other clean energy technologies and efficiency upgrades. A closer look at the data reveals the rooftop solar tax credit was especially popular, and particularly in sun belt states (no big surprises there perhaps). Northeastern states leapt at the energy efficiency tax credit, which encourages Americans to make energy efficient changes to their home, e.g. installing a heat pump or a more efficient water heater. But “not all of the data flatters the Biden administration’s goals,” wrote Emily Pontecorvo and Robinson Meyer for Heatmap. “The tax credits — especially those that reward energy-efficient home upgrades — are used in large part by richer households who have the money and wherewithal to pay for costly upgrades to their homes in the first place.” Read their full analysis of the data here.

3. SunPower files for bankruptcy

SunPower, one of the largest installers of residential rooftop solar in the U.S., has filed for bankruptcy. High interest rates and inflation have hurt demand for residential solar, “leaving companies with too much inventory on hand,” CNBC reported. But SunPower faced internal issues in recent months, too. The company breached a credit agreement, and was notified by Nasdaq that it was out of compliance with financial reporting requirements by not filing on time. “SunPower’s travails are emphatically a company-specific issue and should not be seen as a comment on the underlying demand for U.S. residential solar,” Pavel Molchanov, an analyst with Raymond James, told Bloomberg. “It has been a difficult six months for SunPower.”

4. Rivian reports Q2 earnings

Rivian beat Wall Street’s expectations for revenue in its second-quarter earnings report yesterday. The EV startup reported $1.16 billion in revenue, just above analysts’ projections. But its net losses didn’t budge much compared to Q1, coming in at about $1.46 billion thanks in part to a planned shut down at an Illinois factory that reduced production. And the company is still losing money on every vehicle it builds, but it lost less per vehicle in Q2 ($32,705) than in Q1 ($38,784). Rivian has been working to cut costs through more efficient manufacturing, and still expects to record a gross profit by the end of the year. Looking ahead, pre-orders for the R2, set for launch in 2026, have surpassed 100,000, according to the company’s vice president of manufacturing Tim Fallon.

5. Nissan tests new cooling car paint

Nissan is testing a new kind of car paint that it claims can reflect the sun’s near-infrared rays and redirect the energy back into the atmosphere, thus keeping vehicles cooler on hot days. It’s been trialing the paint on a Nissan NV100 service vehicle as it drives around on the scorching tarmac at Tokyo International Air Terminal. Early results have been “impressive,” the company said in a news release. The paint seems capable of reducing the car’s internal temperatures by about 10 degrees Fahrenheit, and cutting exterior surface temperatures by about 21 degrees. “A cooler cabin is not only more pleasant to enter, but also requires less air-conditioning run-time to cool the cabin to a comfortable temperature,” Nissan said. “This helps reduce load to the engine, or in the case of an electric vehicle, draw on the battery. In both powertrains, an improvement in efficiency is expected, as well as occupant comfort.”

Nissan

THE KICKER

“Removing political and cultural barriers to EVs as a whole is certainly something to celebrate, even while the exact motivations remain suspect.” –Heatmap’s Jeva Lange on MAGA’s somewhat puzzling obsession with the Cybertruck.