Solar power investments mostly up on VC & debt as money pours into large-scale projects
Mercom Capital Group’s Q1 2019 Solar Funding & M&A report shows $2.8 billion in venture capital, public market and debt financing, versus $2.5 billion a year ago. Large-scale project financing reached a record $5.58 billion across 43 deals, while there were 18 solar corporate M&A transactions.
Macquarie to sell off solar, wind businesses, Vote Solar hiring: pvMB: 4/10/19
Good morning and welcome to today’s pvMB. We also bring you on this fine morning Midsummer’s new solar metal roof, a new iteration of S-5!’s clamps, a collaboration between Soligent and Pika Energy, and more!
Your home’s solar and batteries could power the LA grid
Sunrun has proposed that the City of Los Angeles set its sights on 75,000 residential solar+storage systems (860 MWdc of solar plus 1.2 GWh of energy storage) by 2030 with the goal of replacing one of the region’s three retiring gas plants, while saving $60 million in electricity costs.
Bill to extend federal solar tax credits to energy storage introduced
The bill would move beyond current provisions that enable the ITC only for solar-paired battery systems.
Tennessee seeks 200 MWac of renewables + energy storage
TVA has launched a solicitation for renewable energy projects with a minimum size of 2 MW, noting a preference for energy storage. The request for proposal pricing structure takes into account energy storage, seasonal and time of day pricing.
Energy storage’s increasingly investment grade status
SUSI Partners has purchased a 50% stake in Macquarie Capital’s 63 MW / 340 MWh distributed energy storage portfolio located in Southern California. Included as part of this purchase is the world’s largest virtual power plant.
Facebook’s solar fake news, Recurrent secures $50 million and more: pvMB for 4/3/19
Hello and welcome to the slightly-retooled pvMB. Today we’ll be looking at commercial development coming to southern Virginia, Dynapower’s new 500 kW DC-DC converter, the development of PJM and Argonne National Lab’s solar guidelines and everything else you need today.
Solar insurance needs to “reset benchmark” with higher loss expectancy
Solar insurance company GCube is suggesting that renewable developers in the United States consider slightly higher loss expectancy in the risk models due to accelerated installation times, newer more complex hardware, O&M budget tightening, and great natural disaster risk.
Goldman Sachs to snatch up 233 MW of C&I solar from SunPower
The transaction both feeds the growing appetite of institutional investors for solar projects, and also provides SunPower with more cash.
Enel moves on a 13 gigawatt project pipeline & flips 6 GW of solar+storage
Enel acquired renewable developer Tradewind’s 13 GW portfolio of wind and solar plus storage projects in the United States, and then immediately sold the 6 GW portion of the portfolio that is solar+storage projects to Macquarie.
