O&M

In this series of articles, Power Factors’ Steve Hanawalt will look in-depth at the four major pitfalls in solar asset monitoring applications, before discussing proposed solutions for fixing these problems—once and for all.

Investors continue to invest and clean energy entrepreneurs continue to innovate — despite global setbacks. Here are five companies that have raised more than $60 million in funding in recent days — ranging across the cleantech spectrum from batteries to fusion to solar software for O&M.

With monitoring data from more than 25 GW of PV installations across 35 countries, Raptor Maps is looking to expand the company’s influence even further, after closing on $5 million in Series A financing.

Deeming that “the strategic thesis behind O&M has changed,” First Solar has sold off its O&M business to the same private equity firm that SunPower did earlier this year.

Also in the brief: Berkshire Hathaway Energy subsidiary NV Energy goes full-on solar-plus-storage, and single-axis tracker analysis.

Also in the brief: a letter calling for electric grid infrastructure, transportation and equity and environmental justice has been delivered to key members of the House, Clir Renewables has secured a $1.25 million loan with Silicon Valley Bank, 580 businesses call on congress to include clean energy in a the next stimulus package and more.

Solar assets are underperforming far more frequently than official energy estimates would suggest, according to the industry experts who contributed to KwH Analytics’ 2020 solar risk assessment report.

Executive and boardroom moves in solar, storage, cleantech, utilities and energy VC.

Executive and boardroom moves in solar, storage, cleantech, utilities and energy VC.

The US National Renewable Energy Laboratory examined five-year data to observe the most common system failure points and how to prevent them. Researchers considered residential, commercial and utility scale plants and found interesting results. While failures cannot be avoided completely, a key takeaway was that close monitoring and timely repair can effectively mitigate the financial effects of failures.