Hardware brief: modules at 30¢/W, Enphase selling direct, solar+water, more!
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.
$1 billion, 1.5 GWac, scaling manufacturing, and 73% growth in Q3 for SolarEdge
The inverter manufacturer met expectations of growth, slowed down 4th quarter projections, talked of ramping Vietnamese and Hungarian facilities, and generally sounded healthy.
Vivint Solar boasts a record quarter
The company set records in installed megawatts and revenue, however operational losses, the bane of all third-party solar companies, still haunt Vivint.
California CCAs seek distributed energy storage to keep the lights on
Three Bay Area CCAs and a municipal utility are seeking a total of 33 MW of batteries and/or solar and batteries at residential and commercial sites. This is not only to fulfill state requirements, but to provide power during outages.
Do you take this battery, through degradation and replacement, till death do you part?
DNV GL has released its 2019 Battery Scorecard, looking at various factors weighing on battery degradation, with a focus on the financeability of energy storage projects.
Sacramento utility proposes eschewing rooftop mandate with community solar
The Sacramento Municipal Utility District has created a proposal which would allow homeowners to opt-into community solar programs in lieu of installing systems on their roofs.
Hardware brief: Module pricing falling, Enphase at 450W, sexy solar panels get $3.2 million, more!
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!
Bulking up: Storage heads for center stage
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
Nexceris: Taming the Li-ion
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.
California power shutdown certified solar homes from SunPower?
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.
