Morning Brief: AES invests in solar startup 5B, Switch selects Tesla batteries for datacenters
Also in the brief: Hecate Energy, the largest privately-held independent solar power developer in the U.S., sold its 514 MWac solar project, plus the chart of the day.
Despite revenue growth, Quick Mount PV to let 40 employees go and shutter California manufacturing
Despite strong revenue growth in the U.S., the racking company is abandoning its U.S. manufacturing (and rhetoric) to “create a globally diversified supply chain.” Quick Mount was acquired by Netherlands-based Esdec last year in a roll-up of U.S. racking companies.
Morning Brief: Sol Systems and Microsoft partner on 500 MW of solar, PVEL’s new inverter test lab
Also in the brief: Berkshire Hathaway Energy subsidiary NV Energy goes full-on solar-plus-storage, and single-axis tracker analysis.
Morning Brief: 294 MW Muscle Shoals solar project sold to Ørsted
Also in the brief: American solar supplier Aptos Solar added to Loanpal’s approved list, second life EV batteries for use in a microgrid, Maxeon upsizes convertible note offering
Morning Brief: Tucson Electric Power aims to add 1.4 GW of storage, Standard Solar secures $105 million
Also in the brief: Bank of America signs its first PPA, CS Energy has completed a 33 MW portfolio of solar projects in Texas, RP Construction Services and RECON partner to build tracker projects and more
PV module prices are falling faster than all predictions
New research from Wood Mackenzie shows that overall system costs for installations using mono PERC modules are set to fall by as much as 20% by 2025.
Morning Brief: Renewables continue to break records despite Covid-19, beyond net metering
Also in the brief: net metering under attack, Clir Renewables’ new asset optimization platform, Roll-A-Rack is seeking beta testers and more.
Single-axis bifacial PV offers lowest LCOE in vast majority of world’s land area
Researchers from the Solar Energy Research Institute of Singapore have concluded that utility-scale PV projects relying on bifacial panels and single-axis trackers deliver the lowest levelized cost of energy in most of the world. They found that the combination of bifacial products with dual-axis trackers is still too expensive, despite the higher yield. The second-lowest LCOE is offered by monofacial single-axis tracker plants.
Morning brief: Solar on the family farm, LIPA shutting down steam, PG&E emerging from bankruptcy
Also in the brief: product announcements from GAF Energy, REsurety and Point Load Power.
Job moves: Helena Kimball promoted to CEO at Cthulhu-backed solar startup; plus Strata, sPower, KCE, Borrego, Sunpro
Executive and boardroom moves in solar, storage, cleantech, utilities and energy VC.
