EVs and solar: As the electric vehicle market begins to take off, many are hoping that this technology will be complementary to solar PV. And while the potential is there, a closer look shows that there are many unanswered questions, and there is still a lot of work to be done.
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Dividend’s solar power securitization receives industry’s first “AA” rating
Dividend Finance has closed a $104 million residential solar loan securitization, following on its first $129 million securitization in October 2017.
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Markets & Policy
Energía Hoy, pv magazine group launch pv magazine Mexico
Trade publishers energía hoy and pv magazine group have partnered to launch a new website – www.pv-magazine-mexico.com – and weekly newsletter to cover the fast growing Mexican solar PV market.
Markets & Policy
NextEra moves deeper into solar power and solar plus storage
The Florida power company is increasingly building large-scale solar through both its deregulated generation arm and regulated utility FPL, including putting its first solar plus storage projects online.
Installations
Commercial solar power strategically sited in San Diego
Clean Coalition, NREL and City of San Diego are working on solar siting and designing a feed-in-tariff program to drive grid resilience via distributed solar power.
Markets & Policy
Battery storage funding booms in Q1 (w/ chart)
The latest report by Mercom Capital finds VC investment in battery storage companies rising five-fold year-over-year to $299 million in 12 deals.
Markets & Policy
Green shift in finance accelerating – $200B from Wells Fargo
Wells Fargo plans to invest $200 billion by 2030 in sustainability projects, including at least $100 billion in green bonds and clean energy technologies including renewable energy, EVs and batteries.
Interview
#Solar100’s Shayle Kann: The Malcolm Gladwell of clean energy
Richard Matsui, founder & CEO of kWh Analytics, speaks with Shayle Kann, senior vice president of research & strategy at Energy Impact Partners.
Markets & Policy
Congress fights Trump’s solar tariffs
Representative Jacky Rosen (D) of Nevada introduced the ‘Protecting American Solar Jobs Act’ on April 19th. The bill would repeal the tariffs imposed under the Section 201 ruling.
Press Releases
Rally to save Connecticut solar jobs
Solar workers from across Connecticut rally against clean energy Senate Bill 9’s dark side.
Tomark-Worthen LLC Awarded Department of Energy SunShot Award for Novel Photovoltaic Backsheet Development
Tomark-Worthen LLC, an organization that manufacturers solarfilm and sheet to the photovoltaic industry, announced that it was selected to receive a $560,000. 00 award from the U.
CleanView Capital launches government finance program
We are pleased to announce the launch of our special 10-year Government Finance Program for municipal, county and state entities and their subdivisions, such as schools, universities and water departments as well as their community renewable energy projects. Transaction sizes may range from $300,000 to $5 million.
MPOWERD Inc. leadership visits Puerto Rico six months after Hurricane Maria, deploying more than 80,000 solar lights with the help of its NGO partners
As of March 2018 more than half of Puerto Rico was still without power. In an effort to bring light to those still in need, MPOWERD Inc.
Installations
Featured
Florida allows Sunrun solar power leases despite 3rd-party ban
Florida regulators have ruled that Sunrun's 20-year solar equipment lease in Florida is not a retail sale of electricity - opening the door to third-party owned solar.
Walmart to host solar power on 130 more sites
The world’s largest retailer has slipped in recent rankings, but is planning to pursue more solar, both at its facilities and through third-party purchases of power.
Getting solar power in Illinois beyond FEJA
Illinois’s solar market under the Future Energy Jobs Act is just getting started, but a business group is calling for the next governor and state legislature to provide less restriction and more action in community and distributed solar programs.
100 MW MGM-Invenergy Solar Project to power Las Vegas Strip
The project will be built on 640 acres of public land in a zone designated for solar energy, and is expected to be online by the end of 2020.
Wunder Capital raises $112 million to scale C&I finance solutions
The solar finance technology company’s Series B financing round is 30x larger than its Series A round a year ago.
Target remains the largest adopter of on-site corporate solar power
The company added 43 MW last year, placing it well ahead of Walmart and Prologis. Overall installations at 4,000 companies tracked by SEIA grew slightly to 326 MW last year.
Manufacturing
Featured
SolarWorld Americas comments on duties exemptions for competitors, SunPower
Shortly before the announcement of its acquisition by SunPower, SolarWorld’s former U.S. subsidiary commented on the request by its competitors to be exempt from the new U.S. solar PV import tariffs.
A commitment to American manufacturing: An interview with SunPower CEO Tom Werner
In this interview with pv magazine SunPower CEO Tom Werner gets into the why and how of his company’s purchase of SolarWorld Americas, and what to expect from SolarWorld’s Oregon factory in the future.
Solar power electronics get $20 million from DOE
The U.S. Department of Energy has announced up to $20 million in funding for nine projects to advance early-stage solar power electronics technologies.
SunPower to buy SolarWorld Americas
The two biggest names in the solar trade fight will now be one company. SunPower will again be a U.S. manufacturer, and SolarWorld will begin producing P-Series modules.
SQN to sell off Suniva’s cell tools
Tools that Suniva used to manufacture solar cells will now be sold off, limiting the possibility for the company to re-emerge as a cell maker.
Dynapower signs master supply agreement with Viridity
Viridity Energy Solutions has signed Dynapower to be its master supplier of inverters and fully integrated energy storage systems. Viridity also chose Dynapower to manage two 20MW/20MWh systems.
Markets & Policy
Featured
Michigan dismantles net metering
Over the protests of many different parties, Michigan has become the latest state to experiment with destroying the fundamental policy for distributed solar in the United States.
ESA lays out the path for 35 GW of energy storage by 2025
The Energy Storage Association has published a roadmap for the adoption of 35 GW of energy storage, as well as outlining the benefits of such a move.
50 states of storage under Speakes-Backman’s thumb
Kelly Speakes-Backman, the CEO of the Energy Storage Association, spoke with pv magazine about storage and the challenges of state-level advocacy at ESA’s annual conference in Boston.
Private equity sees gold in solar power development
Ares Management LP’s energy and infrastructure fund has announced a plan to acquire a majority stake in Conti Solar, a solar power developer and EPC which has built 500 MW of solar projects.
Trump Administration opens up $105 million in funding for solar research
The DOE has issued a call for projects to apply for funding in the areas of grid integration, PV, CSP and workforce diversity.
SEIA reports 18 companies reducing solar deployment, workforce in 2018
The national solar trade organization has listed cancelled investments and hiring as well as job losses in its comments supporting requests for exclusion from Section 201 tariffs.
Technology
Featured
Microlink Devices hits 37.75% efficiency for triple junction cell
Microlink Devices has achieved a record efficiency of 37.75% on its triple junction thin film cells, as confirmed by NREL. The lightweight cell achieves a power density of more than 3000 W/kg, and is designed for use in satellites and unmanned air vehicles (UAVs).
Will Powerhouse rise from the dead? RGS taps manufacturing partners
RGS Energy has contracted with Risen Energy, along with others, to help it commercialize the most recent incarnation of Dow’s Powerhouse Solar Shingle.
Illinois smart inverter rebates to benefit solar deployment
The availability of smart inverter rebates for Illinois medium and large nonresidential PV systems in Illinois can go beyond being able to work better in a grid to impacting net metering, energy storage and other policy issues.
NREL develops open source tool to monitor PV plant performance & degradation
The U.S. National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) has launched a new software package, developed alongside SunPower and kWh Analytics, which it says will improve the accuracy and reliability of PV plant performance data, and improve the industry’s understanding of degradation.
Southern Company pledges “low-to-no” carbon electricity by 2050
The CEO of the southern power giant has made a pledge of heavy carbon reduction at the BNEF Future of Energy Summit, but the details are murky and contradictory, and wrapped in layers of mythology.
RGS Energy seeks $10M to commercialize Powerhouse solar shingles
RGS Energy, which bought global rights to Dow’s Powerhouse 3.0 solar shingles, has seen its timelines slip for UL certification of the product.