Just one day after the company celebrated the completion of the 328 MW Mount Signal 3 Solar Farm, 8minutenergy has announced that company CEO and co-founder Martin Hermann has been bought out.
Effective immediately, Hermann will step down from his role as CEO, while co-founder Tom Buttgenbach will transition into that role as well as the role of company president. All of Hermann’s shares in 8minutenergy will be purchased by Buttgenbach and the 8minutenergy management team.
“In the past 9 years we have worked successfully to accomplish a differentiated positioning for 8minutenergy which has allowed us to become the leading independent developer in the United States” said Hermann in the realease announcing his departure from the company.
“I am proud that we have been able to set a number of industry-firsts, most recently with the first utility-scale power plants with bi-facial modules on single axis tracker. We have also set a number of price records for PPAs in the US, most recently with the Eagle Shadow Mountain project.”
Since Hermann and Buttgenbach founded 8minutenergy Renewables in 2009, the company has become one of the largest independent developers of solar PV in the United States, with a portfolio of over 10 GW of solar and storage under development in North America, 1100 MW in operating solar assets, and 2 GW in power purchase agreements.
Furthermore, the company just announced the completion of the Mount Signal 3 Solar Farm, a 328 MW project which is part of the even larger 800 MW Mount Signal solar cluster. The Mount Signal complex, when completed, will be the largest solar project in California and among the largest in the world. The completion of Mount Signal 3 marks 80% of the cluster’s total final capacity being reached.
“There has never been a more exciting time in the U.S. energy market,” said Buttgenbach in the release announcing Hermann’s buyout. “The industry’s transforming to where renewables will be the dominant form of power now that generation costs are lower than fossil fuels.”
“This evolution will be led by large-scale solar and storage projects, and 8minutenergy will continue to be at the vanguard of the industry. I’m grateful to our incredibly talented team and to Martin for their hard work over the past nine years.”
The value of this transaction has not yet been disclosed, nor have the reasons for Hermann’s departure.
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