The Outlook for Solar: Q&A With Borrego Solar CEO Mike Hall

quite a few building inspectors we have come across who are now taking courses and seminars to further educate themselves on how PV systems work.

X: The Massachusetts Renewable Portfolio Standard calls for 20 percent of the electricity that utilities provide to the grid come from renewable sources by 2025. The California RPS is more aggressive, and calls for 20 percent in 2010 and 33 percent by 2020. What affect, if any, do these mandates have on Borrego Solar?

MH: In California, the Renewable Portfolio Standard (RPS) has not yet had a material impact on our business. While on the surface, the program seems aggressive, some key elements are still missing. Generally, it lacks teeth and there is not a clear cost for non-compliance to the utilities. Additionally, they have not done a good job of creating a market for the tradable credits (RECS) in California. Lastly, there is no carve-out for solar or small-scale renewable.

The Massachusetts, RPS is very different. They have created a mechanism for trading the RECs and have mandated that a portion of the energy come from solar. As a result, we see the Massachusetts RPS as a major driver for market demand.

X: How has the recession affected the industry and your business?

MH: The recession had a tremendous impact on the industry. Most of our projects were financed using tax incentives that were largely being purchased by large financial institutions. As the big banks started to report losses, they lost all appetite for purchasing tax incentives. As a result, it became very difficult to finance projects. The good news is

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Author: Bruce V. Bigelow

In Memoriam: Our dear friend Bruce V. Bigelow passed away on June 29, 2018. He was the editor of Xconomy San Diego from 2008 to 2018. Read more about his life and work here. Bruce Bigelow joined Xconomy from the business desk of the San Diego Union-Tribune. He was a member of the team of reporters who were awarded the 2006 Pulitzer Prize in National Reporting for uncovering bribes paid to San Diego Republican Rep. Randy “Duke” Cunningham in exchange for special legislation earmarks. He also shared a 2006 award for enterprise reporting from the Society of Business Editors and Writers for “In Harm’s Way,” an article about the extraordinary casualty rate among employees working in Iraq for San Diego’s Titan Corp. He has written extensively about the 2002 corporate accounting scandal at software goliath Peregrine Systems. He also was a Gerald Loeb Award finalist and National Headline Award winner for “The Toymaker,” a 14-part chronicle of a San Diego start-up company. He takes special satisfaction, though, that the series was included in the library for nonfiction narrative journalism at the Nieman Foundation for Journalism at Harvard University. Bigelow graduated from U.C. Berkeley in 1977 with a degree in English Literature and from the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism in 1979. Before joining the Union-Tribune in 1990, he worked for the Associated Press in Los Angeles and The Kansas City Times.