Tesla’s Project Titan, a silent, limitless solar catamaran: pvMB 8/28/19

Tesla’s Project Titan – It would appear that Tesla has known about faulty and defective products on their installations for quite some time, as this Business Insider article outlines “Project Titan,” an effort begun by Tesla to stealthily replace solar-panel parts across the US. The faulty parts were Amphenol H4 connectors and SolarEdge optimizers. The two in conjunction on these projects would overheat leading to… you guessed it, fires. However, according to a SolarEdge representative, the Walmart fires that Tesla is facing suit over have nothing to do with SolarEdge products. Source: Business Insider 

Intersolar NA announces partnership w/ NABCEP for 2020 event in San Diego – Intersolar North America announced today a new partnership with the North American Board of Certified Energy Practitioners (NABCEP). Eligible PV professionals will be able to attend the Intersolar North America expo hall for free at the San Diego Convention Center from February 4-6, 2020, and can register for NABCEP-approved continuing education classes to receive up to nine (9) Continuing Education Units (CEUs) that they can use toward Board Certification and recertification requirements. This is the first of several new program additions that the event will announce ahead of its move to San Diego for 2020. “It’s not enough to just be the first major solar + energy storage event at a more convenient time of year, we also want to expand the programming available to attendees to help them start the year off with a clear business advantage,” said Wes Doane, Event Director for Intersolar North America. Source: Intersolar NA, NABCEP

The totally silent, limitless in range, solar catamaran – Yesterday’s brief featured an article outlining the issues with solar cars, namely the negligible range that solar panels add. On the opposite ened of the spectrum, today we have the Silent 55, an oceangoing solar-electric production catamaran, developed by Silent-Yachts.  The 56-foot catamaran has unlimited range, no noise or fumes, minimal vibration and has been lauded as “virtually maintenance-free.” It features 30 high-efficiency solar panels rated for approximately 10 kilowatt-peak, a 15-kVA inverter and a 1,500-watt electric windlass. If you’ve got an extra $1.55 million laying around, it’s a steal. Source: Robb Report

Standard Solar, Pivot Energy develop 5 community projects in Colorado – “Pivot Energy and Standard Solar have expanded their partnership to co-develop five more community solar sites across Colorado. The portfolio of projects, all ground mount arrays, will total approximately 8.9 megawatts (MWs). The first two projects in the expanded portfolio will begin construction at the end of summer with all five expected to be completed by summer 2020. Standard Solar will finance, own and maintain the community solar arrays that Pivot Energy will develop and construct. Once the arrays are live, customer enrollment and subscriptions will be managed through SunCentral, Pivot Energy’s proprietary community solar customer management interface that provides users with a seamless and enjoyable community solar experience.” Source: Pivot Energy and Standard Solar

Lanai and Molokai RFP released – Remember the massive RFP that came out of Hawaii at the beginning of the week with promises of more to come later in the summer? Well that blater in the summer came quickly, as the RFPs for Lanai and Molokai have been released. The RFPs are highlighted by “4 MW of solar or 3.6 MW of small wind for Moloka’i, paired with energy storage, and an equivalent up to 9.5 MW of solar paired with energy storage for Lānaʻi, pending approval by the PUC.” Source: Hawaiian Electric Companies