Manufacturing

Seven early-stage solar manufacturing firms have won U.S. Department of Energy grants to develop prototypes, which they could use to help attract private investment. DOE’s 21 PV research and development grants may hold more interest for established manufacturers.

The company’s transformation from a manufacturer to the 2nd-largest residential solar company in the United States is complete with it spinning off of its high-efficiency cell and module production into a new company, in partnership with Chinese wafer maker TZS.

JP Morgan Chase has completed a 2.8 MW rooftop bifacial solar panel installation, using Prism Solar modules, on their Columbus, Ohio location that will meet 18 percent of the site’s electricity usage.

The world is witnessing a global shift. A shift to clean mobility, to renewable energy. And this is where batteries come in.

It’s Friday, and Friday is the day you get to see new gear! Ideal Energy has put out a great white paper on a solar+storage demand charge management project, 8minute Solar Energy talks up their advanced solar power plant software partners, and Northern Reliability Company shows off the beautiful energy storage gear they assemble.

We were gone till November, now we’re here. The US Air Force is researching space based solar power, SimpliPhi has discounts on energy storage products for Californians, and ESS Inc has raised $30 million to help roboticize a 1 GWh/year capacity factory to build flow batteries in Oregon!

Energy storage has largely served at the margin of power grids over the past decade. But the continuing cost crash in wind and solar generation are changing storage’s role. A recent round of projects, from Indiana to Arizona, suggests that storage is bulking up and is set to act more equally in generation

In an emergency, every second counts. With this premise in mind, a team from Ohio-based manufacturer Nexceris set out to improve a warning system to protect lithium-ion storage systems from fires, after working with the U.S.
Navy on the response to a lithium-ion fire outbreak on a vessel 10 years ago.

SunPower met or exceeded 3rd quarter guidance, though it fell short of profitability by $15 million on $476 million in revenue. The company revealed that they have ~40,000 new home pre-orders for the California solar mandate market, and their Equinox home storage system launches in Q1.

Fluence has been awarded or built more than 1 GW of energy storage capacity in 95 unique projects across 20 countries. Now, the company – a joint venture between Siemens and AES –is modeling the future of the power grid to predict where its expertise will be utilized next.