D.R. Horton, among the largest new home builders in the United States, announced it has selected Streetleaf as a national vendor. 

In the agreement, Streetleaf will provide its solar-powered streetlamps to D.R. Horton for its new construction communities. 

Streetleaf’s latest streetlamp includes a 21% efficiency solar panel, 220W high-efficiency LED lights, and an NiMH battery. The resilient structure can withstand temperatures up to 158 degrees F and winds of 160 mph. It an be installed at heights 15 to 25 feet and is available in black or white.

“Any housing project being developed without solar-powered streetlights is a missed opportunity for the future of that community,” stated Liam Ryan, chief executive officer of Streetleaf. “The demand for sustainable living solutions is growing exponentially and our streetlights are attracting the attention of potential homebuyers.” 

D.R. Horton already installs smart home technology in every home it builds. Now the company is incorporating smart neighborhood solutions, including solar-powered streetlights from Streetleaf. 

“Sustainable infrastructure is highly attractive to homeowners, and the added peace of mind that comes with knowing the lights are designed to remain operational even during many extreme weather events like hurricanes is equally important,” said Brad Conlon, senior vice president, business development, D.R. Horton. 

Over 7,300 Streetleaf streetlights have already been installed in more than 100 projects across the U.S. This has led to an estimated 2.6 million pounds of CO2 savings compared to traditional streetlights, said the company. 

Sunnova Energy International, a publicly traded home “adaptive services” company providing solar, energy storage, and home energy management services, announced it has formed two new partnerships with Tenet Energy and Finturf.

Tenet Energy is a financial technology platform focused on the energy transition, starting with electric vehicles. Tenet connects EV drivers and fleet owners with loan terms from sustainability-focused financial institutions.

The joint effort will include a series of exclusive promotions aimed at encouraging Sunnova customers to invest in an electric vehicle with Tenet’s financing options and Tenet customers to adopt Sunnova’s solar energy systems. The promotions will include special discounts and flexible finance terms.

“By using solar panels to charge electric vehicles, homeowners can achieve significant cost savings—potentially hundreds of dollars annually on their electric bills,” said Tenet. “This integration results in a lower overall total cost of ownership, offers a sophisticated smart home system that optimizes energy use and offers substantial economic benefits like reduced utility bills and lower fuel costs.”

Sunnova will also partner with and become a financing partner for Finturf, a multi-lender point-of-sale platform. The company will provide financing for HVAC systems, roofing, generators, EV chargers, and electrical panel upgrades.

Sunnova’s financing options range from $500 to $250,000, offering flexible terms from 12 months to 25 years and competitive APRs starting as low as 0%.

“Sunnova’s addition represents a significant milestone in advancing sustainable home improvement financing,” said Stephen Pool, vice president of partnerships at Finturf. “By integrating Sunnova’s energy-efficient financing options into our network, we’re empowering homeowners to pursue eco-friendly projects with ease and confidence.”

Origami Solar announced partnerships with three steel fabricators who will domestically produce steel solar module frames. The fabricators include with Welser Profile of Valley City, Ohio; Priefert, of Mt. Pleasant, Texas; and Unimacts of Houston, Texas. Origami expects to be able to ship steel frames to customers in the first quarter of 2025, and by producing regionally says that frames will get from the fabricator to the module manufacturer in one to two days.

“America has one of the world’s strongest steel industries” said Origami Solar CEO Gregg Patterson. “We have the energy efficient steel mills and the world-class fabricators that can produce every solar frame America will ever need.”

Origami Solar, founded in 2019 and based in Bend, Oregon, is a pv magazine 2023 award winner for manufacturing. The company produces patented, steel solar module frames that are said to lower cost and improve module performance. The company reports that the frames are made of “green” recycled steel, thereby reducing greenhouse gases by up to 93%, representing a reduction of 80 kg per module or 200 metric tons per MW.

A recent report by Wood Mackenzie and Origami Solar notes that while the U.S. is working toward building up its domestic module manufacturing, thanks for the IRA, a less well-known problem is U.S. dependence on aluminum module frames. The majority of these are currently imported from East and Southeast Asia, and the report says that they are all made from carbon-intensive aluminum.

Origami sees an opportunity to supply module manufacturers in the U.S. market who are switching from imported aluminum frames to domestically made steel frames. Its use of recycled steel from suppliers in the U.S. and Europe in its frames give it a competitive edge when it comes to greenhouse gas scoring as assessed by Boundless Impact

Patterson points out that by having regional fabrication centers in the U.S., customers will avoid “shipping issues, labor strife, or impoundments delaying the arrival of the frames they need.” He added that by procuring domestically produced steel frames customers won’t have the worry of “geopolitical tensions” or “ever-increasing tariffs.” In light of recent news about fragile solar panels, he noted that steel frames may alleviate the risk of frames failing to support ever-larger solar panels.

Switching to domestically produced products across the solar supply chain has the further benefit of supporting good-paying jobs.

“Thanks to our partnership with Origami, we were able to expand our investments in the solar industry, keep our Benton, Arkansas facility open, keep our current employees hard at work and expand to up to 70 additional skilled workers over the next three years,” said Rocky Christenberry, Priefert’s executive vice president

GoodWe Technologies, a solar inverter and smart energy specialist, announced that it has been added to the approved vendor list of Sunnova Energy. This partnership enables Sunnova to provide GoodWe’s SMT-US inverter for medium- to large-scale commercial and industrial (C&I) solar sites.

This partnership allows GoodWe and Sunnova to meet the growing demand by commercial and industrial customers that want to stabilize energy costs.

GoodWe reports that its SMT-US three-phase, 50/60 kW inverter provides improved safety and design flexibility, and meets safety shutdown standards with a built-in rapid shutdown transmitter that eliminates the need to install additional module-level hardware. It also complies with safety standards with type II surge protection for both DC and AC to prevent voltage spikes.

The SMT-US inverters have up to 6 MPPTs and a Max 15A DC input current per string for high-power module compatibility. GoodWe claims that the inverter’s 150% DC input oversizing, 110% AC output overloading, and 180-980V wide input operating range provides for improved system uptime and increases the system’s energy output during the system’s lifetime. Furthermore, the company says the inverter has a unique fuse-free design that increases reliability while decreasing maintenance requirements, thus lowering operating costs.

“GoodWe’s C&I inverters offer benefits at every stage of the system lifecycle, from design flexibility during planning to simpler O&M and increased system uptime after interconnection,” stated Michael Mendik, country manager of GoodWe USA and Canada. “By collaborating with Sunnova, an industry-leading energy services company with national reach, GoodWe is expanding and simplifying access to its products across the U.S. as market demand is on the rise and EPCs are looking for cost-effective and competitive solutions to grow and scale their businesses.”

GoodWe offers products and solutions tailored for residential, commercial and industrial, and utility-scale PV systems. The company reports that it has over 52 GW of installations in over 100 countries and regions.

Sunnova Energy International, a provider of solar, energy storage, and home energy adaptive services, has been in the news recently for its Q1 2024 earnings report as well as recent partnerships, such as with Home Depot, for which it is now the sole provider of solar and energy storage for Home Depot customers.

In a less than stellar earnings report, the company noted a continued decline in revenues amid a challenging U.S. macroeconomic environment for the residential solar industry. Investors had been concerned about the company’s ability to generate enough cash. In response the company continued reductions in operational costs and secured unrestricted cash, which increased by $18.9 million in the first quarter compared to the prior quarter. The company reports it now has about $232 million in unrestricted cash.

A new virtual power plant solution has launched through the partnership of Google Nest Renew and OhmConnect. The new company, Renew Home, has a goal of expanding from 3 GW of electrical energy use to 50 GW by 2030.

Virtual power plants (VPPs) are aggregations of distributed energy resources such as rooftop solar, batteries, electric vehicles, smart appliances, and more. The energy stored or managed by these resources can help balance electricity supply and demand, and can provide grid services such as that provided by fossil-fuel power plants.

In its report Pathways to commercial liftoff: Virtual power plants, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) estimates that if the current scale of VPPs were tripled, it could address as much as 20% of the growing peak demand. DOE forecasts that coincident peak demand on the grid will rise from about 740 GW to 800 GW by 2030. With retiring fossil-fuel plants, the new demand must be met by new resources, such as clean energy VPPs.

OhmConnect is a service designed to provide alerts about energy use, and it can even automatically power down devices at certain times of day to reduce use and save money on electric bills. Google Nest is a line of smart home products, such as smart thermostats, routers, doorbells, security systems, and more. Together they have formed Renew Home, a Sidewalk Infrastructure Partners (SIP) company. SIP was formed out of Alphabet with anchor partners that include the Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan.

With a $100 million investment from majority owner SIP, Renew Home intends to enable U.S.  homes to work together to reduce and shift their energy use.

“The marriage of Nest’s innovative approach to managing energy use in the home with OhmConnect’s customer-focused grid services platform will be transformational,” said Renew Home CEO Ben Brown. “With our industry-leading partners, Renew Home will be able to coordinate the home energy use of millions of customers to help catapult us into a 100% clean energy future.”

Ben Brown was previously with Google, where he led many Google Home and Nest consumer products and services. Prior to Google he developed climate and energy tools for the United Nations, DOE and EPA.

Renew Home works with the Google Home APIs as a platform provider of integrations to control devices and energy use. The company says it also integrates with dozens of additional devices and appliances in the home, including LG, Honeywell, SunPower, Sense, and others, and reports that it will support demand response and VPP programs with more than 100 utilities.

“This is a pivotal moment for virtual power plants,” said Alan Machuga, CTO of Rheem. “We are excited to partner with Renew Home to help customers save money and energy – while supporting the grid. As a leading manufacturer of HVAC and Water Heating products, Rheem uniquely brings both potential for energy savings and energy storage, to which water heaters play a critical role.”

Heliene, Inc., a North American manufacturer of solar energy equipment, announced a multiyear supply agreement for U.S.-made solar modules with U.S.-made cells with UGE, a community and commercial solar developer.

Use of Heliene’s modules is expected to help UGE’s projects qualify for the domestic content adder in the Investment Tax Credit (ITC) under the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA). The solar cells are made by U.S.-based Suniva, which recently announced a three-year sourcing contract under which Suniva will supply domestically manufactured solar cells to Heliene for incorporation into its solar modules.

Heliene has a 300 MW manufacturing line in Ontario and a 100 MW line in Riveria Beach, Florida, and last year announced expansions to its Minnesota facility, adding 150 MW of capacity to the site. It has two manufacturing lines producing a combined annual 800 MW of solar modules. The upgrades also enable the company to produce TOPCon solar modules, which has rapidly emerged as a leading cell type in the global solar market.

With the Heliene supply agreement in place, UGE is projected to begin qualifying for the domestic content adder on projects that start construction as early as this summer. The domestic content adder can be obtained only by using U.S. made cells, according to guidance from the U.S. Department of Treasury, published in May 2023. To qualify for the bonus, developers must purchase modules with U.S.-made solar cells, which continues to be a challenge due to the dearth of domestic cell manufacturers.

The domestic content credit, paired with other qualifying Investment Tax Credits adders, make a significant impact on project economics for UGE and other solar developers. Excelsior Energy Capital, for example, is another developer that recently announced a supply agreement with Heliene. Excelsior will purchase modules primarily produced at the company’s Minnesota factory.

“We are excited to collaborate with a like-minded company that has been our client for over a decade, now supplying U.S.-made modules with U.S.-made cells; we all look forward to this multiyear agreement with an already long-term partner,” said Martin Pochtaruk, CEO at Heliene.

UGE is a Toronto-based developer with a mission to make renewable energy accessible and affordable for all. The company reported it ended 2023 with 4.8 MW of operating assets, and that in 2023 the company reached commercial operation on 2.5 MW of projects, including a 1.0 MW project in Norway, Maine within the fourth quarter, which more than doubled the company’s operational portfolio from 2.3 MW to 4.8 MW. UGE focuses primarily on developing solar projects that serve low-to moderate-income communities and those most adversely affected by the transition away from the fossil fuel economy.

“We are thrilled about our partnership with Heliene, which will provide us with a reliable source of high-quality modules and support the critical need for growth in domestic solar manufacturing,” said Nick Blitterswyk, UGE’s founder and CEO. “Perhaps most exciting for us, this partnership will help us qualify for Domestic Content Tax Credits, improving our project economics so we can expand our impact by developing more renewable energy projects for the communities we serve.”

The Home Depot has entered a strategic partnership with Sunnova Energy International, making the adaptive services energy company the sole provider of solar and energy storage for Home Depot customers.

In over 2,000 locations, Sunnova representatives will help customers begin inquiry into their own home energy management potential.

“Our goal is to make clean, affordable and reliable energy services more accessible to everyone,” said Michael Grasso, executive vice president and chief revenue officer, Sunnova. “As utility rates continue to skyrocket across the country, weather patterns worsen, and remote work becomes more prevalent, the need for resilient, affordable, and dependable power at the home is non-negotiable.”

The alliance expands previous collaboration between the two companies. In 2021, Sunnova entered 100 Home Depot stores in hurricane prone areas of Florida, Virginia, and Maryland to provide customers with solar and home battery backup. In 2022, the company expanded to Puerto Rico, where its SunSafe brand of solar and battery storage was sold in all Home Depot stores on the island. By 2023 the partnership had expanded to about 400 stores and 15 markets nationwide.

Read about Sunnova’s $3 billion Department of Energy loan project, its micro-utility model, virtual power plants, and more.

The NABCEP continuing education (CE) conference taking place this week in Raleigh, North Carolina is the largest to date with over 1,000 people registered.

With 70 technical training sessions taking place, the conference draws solar in NABCEP-certified installers seeking re-certification. The newest certification is the Energy Storage Installation Professional (ESIP). With support from a grant from the National Science Foundation, NABCEP teamed up with the CREATE Energy Center  and the Midwest Renewable Energy Association to develop the standard of education and training for those working with battery energy storage systems technology.

Steve Kalland, Executive Director of the North Carolina Clean Energy Technology Center delivered the keynote presentation to a packed room of solar professionals, highlighting solar history, current policies and new opportunities. He noted the changes in the technology and overall perception, saying that back in the 1980s PV stood for “potentially viable”. Since that time efficiencies are up, costs are down, policies have been created, and Kalland said the new challenge is how fast it can get built.

With NABCEP being just over 20 years old, a “Pioneers in Solar Breakfast” was added to this year’s agenda to celebrate those attending who have been in solar for decades. Also being recognized are the winners of the annual Walt Ratterman and Les Nelson awards. The Ratterman winner receives a donation of $500 to a charity of their choice and the Les Nelson Scholarship covers NABCEP Conference.

The exhibit hall, which sold out, was bustling with over 100 exhibitors showing tools of the trade as well as marketing software, services and more.

Aurora Solar, a software platform provider for rooftop solar project designs and sales proposals, announced it has partnered with EagleView, an aerial imagery and geospatial software specialist. Under the partnership, Aurora will make use of EagleView’s high-resolution imagery taken from its aircraft fleet.

“This integration will empower solar professionals to prospect, plan, and validate solar projects with the highest accuracy possible,” said Aurora Solar. “EagleView’s high resolution aerial imagery, validated 3D roof models, and industry-leading structure measurements provide an additional layer of accuracy when selling and designing PV systems in Aurora — all without requiring physical site visits.”

High accuracy and speed in solar proposal generation can offer a competitive advantage in the residential solar sales cycle. Accuracy instills confidence in a prospective customer, while speed and the elimination of a site visit improve the customer experience, making it a smoother transition to residential solar.

Aurora’s platform makes use of artificial intelligence (AI) to construct its 3D models of homes and roofs in about 30 seconds. While a standard design service may range from 30 minutes to 24 hours, Aurora says its tool produced a design in 32 seconds on average, based on 340 trial runs of the software.

The “secret sauce” to the EagleView platform is the extremely high-resolution imagery taken from the company’s fleet of 130 aircraft. EagleView flies its aircraft above the solar project site, taking images from overhead and multiple low angles. Rendered together on the software platform, the images create a navigable 3D model of the building. 

The aircraft capture six-inch resolution at fifteen-minute intervals. This is about four times more detailed than standard aerial imagery, and as much as 70 times more detailed than standard satellite imagery.

Together, Aurora and EagleView now have roof imagery that covers over 94% of the U.S. population, with 70 times more detail than satellite imagery, said the company.

Aurora Solar is holding a demonstration of the newly updated software platform on Thursday, March 7. A registration link can be found here.

Energy storage company Powin announced a partnership with global technology provider Hitachi Energy under which Hitachi will take majority ownership in eks Energy (EKS). EKS is a power electronics and energy management solutions provider.

As part of the transaction, Powin retains a significant minority ownership in EKS, and said it will remain actively involved in product development and marketing activities. The transaction was advised by Evercore and Kirkland & Ellis.

Previously acquired by Powin in 2022, EKS will now have access to Hitachi Energy’s advanced engineering and control capabilities, expanded market reach, and supply chain leverage. The new partnership is expected to lead to joint marketing efforts, integration of EKS technologies into Powin’s product roadmap, and inclusion of Powin’s batteries in Hitachi Energy’s energy solution projects.

Powin chief executive officer Jeff Waters said the partnership will be instrumental in shaping the future of power control systems solutions.

“The market has made it clear that it needs and wants energy solutions powered by best-in-class power electronics integrated with control and digital capabilities,” said Massimo Danieli, managing director for Hitachi Energy Grid Automation Business Unit. “EKS has an impressive product deployment footprint in North America and Europe, and under Powin has further extended their global reach.”

Powin has deployed over 3,200 MWh of battery systems worldwide, with another 11,900 MWh under construction.

Headquartered in Switzerland, Hitachi Energy employs around 40,000 people in 90 countries and generates business volumes of over $10 billion. Its parent company Hitachi is headquartered in Japan and employs over 320,000 people worldwide. The conglomerate operates in green energy and mobility, digital systems and services, and connective industries.

Soiling losses occur when solar panels are obstructed by particles like dirt, dust, animal droppings, and more, leading to diminished electrical output. The International Energy Agency (IEA) estimates that as much as $3 billion to $5 billion in lost revenues each year can be attributed to PV soiling.

However, measuring soiling losses accurately has been a difficult task for the solar industry worldwide. As site conditions continually change due to localized weather and a changing climate, understanding the evolution of soiling losses can help asset operators better predict soiling impacts.

Fracsun, which keeps a soiling loss database spanning 22 countries, announced it has formed a partnership with App Orchid, an artificial intelligence platform provider, to offer a soiling loss database and simulation tool.

The Fracsun database is now collecting data on 7 GW of solar assets across various environments. The company said its tool will enable more accurate production modeling and operations and maintenance budget planning.

With a simple query to the database, users can predict soiling losses with assistance from App Orchid’s AI platform. The simulation tool makes use of historical weather patterns, particulate matter, and other relevant data, and integrates it with a probabilistic modeling and decision engine. The application is available for any location in the U.S.

“Our collaboration with Fracsun proves how the predictive analytics and decision-making AI built on App Orchid’s platform can enable the solar industry to be more sustainable while improving profitability,” said Vaibhav Nadgauda, chief executive officer, App Orchid.

The tool will arm project developers with more accurate modeling data, operation and maintenance teams with a clearer picture of operational costs and maintenance schedules, and origination teams with an understanding of which regions are best suited for development.

“Developers and operational professionals alike are often asking for better insight into future costs and production impacts due to soiling for their assets,” said Catlin Matthies, chief executive officer of Fracsun. “This unforeseen impact to project performance has been a source of pain for years and only looks to be getting worse looking to the future.”

IEA estimates that in 2018, soiling caused at least a 3% to 4% loss to global annual energy production from PV. And this is expected to increase to around 4% to 5% this year, thanks to an increase in PV installations in regions highly prone to soiling, economic pressures, and the fact that more efficient PV modules will suffer larger losses to their output due to soiling.

California Senate proposes $400 million community solar and storage investment The Senate has received commendations from industry and environmental advocates for its proposal in the Budget and Fiscal review.

LG Energy Solution and Hyundai announce battery facility in Georgia  The new U.S. manufacturing facility represents an investment of $4.3 billion, and will be located in Bryan County, Georgia, adjacent to Hyundai’s manufacturing facility currently under construction.

U.S. clean energy market deployed 25.5 GW in 2022, third largest year on record American Clean Power reported that 2022 had a 15% slowdown in installations, largely represented in the utility solar market, which had 13 GW fewer deployments in the year.

Solar project cuts carbon, saves energy costs and builds resilience for Tohono O’odham Nation A 182-kW solar photovoltaic system, completed in 2021, is powering two tribal buildings and bringing a multitude of benefits to the San Xavier District of the Tohono O’odham Nation.

Solar module prices at two-year low, deployment to reach 300 GW this year  A report by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory highlights core benchmarks for PV prices, deployment, imports and more.

Oberlin sheep grazing team to reduce solar mowing costs by more than 44%  Some 70 Katahdin breed sheep were dropped off on campus this week at Oberlin’s 10-acre fenced-in North Field. There they will graze through mid-June, stomping grass and weeding the solar field in a move aimed at reducing operations and maintenance costs.

Major solar asset owner AES Corporation signed a recycling services agreement with Solarcycle, a tech-driven PV recycler. The pilot agreement will involve a construction breakage and end-of-life solar panel waste evaluation across the company’s entire asset portfolio.

Under the agreement, AES will send damaged or retired panels to Solarcycle’s Odessa, Texas facility to be recycled and repurposed. Valuable materials like glass, silicon, and metals such as silver, copper, and aluminum will be reclaimed at the site.

“To strengthen U.S. energy security, we must continue to support domestic supply chains,” said Leo Moreno, president, AES Clean Energy. “As one of the world’s leading energy solution providers, AES is committed to sustainable business practices that accelerate these goals. This agreement is an important step in building a vibrant secondary market for end-of-life solar materials and getting us closer to a true domestic circular solar economy.”

AES announced its long-term growth strategy includes plans to triple its renewables portfolio to 25 GW 30 GW of solar, wind and storage assets by 2027 and fully exit investment in coal by 2025. This increased commitment to renewables places increased importance on responsible end-of-life practices for the company’s assets.

The National Renewable Energy Laboratory projects that by 2040, recycled panels and materials could help meet 25% to 30% of U.S. domestic solar manufacturing needs.

What’s more, without changes to the current structure of solar panel retirements, the world could witness some 78 million tons of solar trash disposed in landfills and other waste facilities by 2050, according to the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA). It predicts the U.S. will contribute 10 million metric tons of trash to that 2050 total. To put into context, the U.S. dumps almost 140 million tons of waste each year, according to the Environmental Protection Agency.

A 2021 report by Harvard Business Review said it costs an estimated $20-$30 to recycle one panel but sending it to a landfill costs around $1 to $2. With poor market signals to recycle panels, more work is needed to be done to establish a circular economy.

Solarcycle said its technology can extract more than 95% of the value in a solar panel. The company was awarded a Department of Energy $1.5 million research grant to further assess refinement processes and maximize recovered material value.

“Solarcycle is excited to be working with AES – one of the largest solar asset owners in America – on this pilot program to assess their existing and future recycling needs. As demand for solar energy grows rapidly in the United States, it is critical to have proactive leaders like AES who are committed to developing a more sustainable and domestic supply chain for the solar industry,” said Suvi Sharma, chief executive officer and co-founder of Solarcycle.

In July 2022, the Department of Energy announced a funding opportunity that made available $29 million to support projects that increase the reuse and recycling of solar technologies, develop PV module designs that reduce manufacturing costs, and advance the manufacturing of PV cells made from perovskites. Of the $29 million, $10 million in spending launched by the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law will be directed toward PV recycling.

Rystad estimates peak solar energy implementation in 2035 of 1.4 TW, by which time the recycling industry should be able to supply 8% of the polysilicon, 11% of the aluminum, 2% of the copper, and 21% of the silver needed by recycling solar panels installed in 2020 to meet the material demand. The result will be increased ROI for the solar industry, an enhanced supply chain for materials, as well as a reduction in the need for carbon intensive mining and refinery processes.

Nevados, a California-based all-terrain solar tracker company, announced a partnership with Energix Renewables, an Israeli renewable energy developer and independent power producer (IPP), to provide its tracker platform as part of a long-term supply agreement.

Energix plans to use the Nevados solar trackers to minimize grading on domestic projects with severe topographical challenges. The company expects that by using the all-terrain trackers it will be able to develop solar projects in sloped areas that otherwise would need extensive grading.

According to Yezin Taha, co-founder and CEO of Nevados Engineering, modeling has shown that trackers on a 17% slope can capture 6% more solar energy than trackers on flat ground, and up to 30% more energy than fixed tilt systems.

Nevados began its R&D process in 2014, winning a 2015-2016 SunShot award from the U.S. Department of Energy. Its All Terrain Tracker fits to undulating terrain due to its design that integrates the driveline and articulating capability into the same components. Incorporated into the Nevados design are bearings that allow for installation on slopes up to 37% with slope changes as great as 26% across a foundation.

Other unique design aspects include non-continuous torque tubes, shorter pilings, and large tolerances, all of which simplify and speed up the installation, according to Jenya Meydbray, chief commercial officer at Nevados. Top-clamp clips also reportedly help solar modules to align during installation and accommodate different module sizes. The torque tube and damper designs improve wind performance and Meydbray noted, have proven to withstand hurricane-force winds with zero structural damage.

Energix U.S. LLC, its Arlington, Virginia-based subsidiary, reports that it currently has over 6 GW in its U.S. solar project pipeline. With operations in the U.S., Israel and Poland, Energix reports it has approximately $500 million invested in the U.S. with nine operational projects, six projects in construction and others in its project pipeline.

“Our goal is to build high-performing solar projects that respect the natural landscape and benefit local communities,” commented Itamar Sarussi, country manager of Energix U.S. “The new partnership with Nevados means Energix can deploy best-in-class solar assets with minimal topographical impact and help ensure our projects on topographically diverse sites are successful.”

The partners will begin their collaboration with three solar farms in rural Virginia, two of which are located on rolling topography in the highly regulated Chesapeake Bay watershed. Apple Grove Solar is a 20 MW solar project in Louisa County with plans for a pollinator garden on site. The 37 MW Endless Caverns and 25 MW River Trail solar projects are reportedly among the first large-scale solar farms to be located in Rockingham County and Carroll County, respectively.

“As the renewable energy transition spreads to regions with more variable terrain, environmentally responsible construction that eliminates grading will drive the solar industry’s next phase of growth,” said Meydbray.

(Read more on all-terrain trackers: “Tracking the sun on uneven terrain“)

First Solar and EDP Renewables announced a multi-year order for 1.8 GW (DC) of First Solar’s advanced thin-film photovoltaic solar modules. The modules, which will be delivered through 2028, will power EDP Renewables’ U.S. project portfolio.

EDP Renewables is a global renewable energy producer, and its subsidiary EDP Renewables North America currently operates 475 MW of solar projects with 1.6 GW of solar projects under construction. The company also operates more than 200 distributed generation solar sites throughout North America. For example, EDPR has installed 51 distributed energy projects for Walmart across seven states from Arizona and California to New Jersey and Maryland. Including both utility-scale and DG, EDPR plans to add 4.8 GW of solar capacity in North America over the next three years.

“EDP Renewables’ ambitious business plan calls for more than 4 GW of renewable capacity annually through 2026 with nearly half of the new clean energy generation to come from North America,” said Sandhya Ganapathy, chief executive officer, EDPR NA. “Solar is an increasingly important technology in our portfolio, and we are well-positioned to work with innovative and environmentally responsible partners and products that can help us meet our outlined targets and lead the energy transition.”

First Solar is a U.S. manufacturer of solar modules made with cadmium telluride thin-film technology, which has a lower carbon intensity to manufacture than traditional polysilicon solar cells. It is the only company among the ten largest global solar module manufacturers to be a member of the Responsible Business Alliance (RBA), the world’s largest industry coalition dedicated to supporting the rights and well-being of workers and communities in the global supply chain.

“We welcome EDP Renewables’ decision to power its projects with our technology and look forward to supporting its growth in the U.S. and, potentially, beyond,” said Mark Widmar, chief executive officer, First Solar. “EDP Renewables joins a growing roster of large, sophisticated developers choosing long-term pricing and supply certainty, and responsibly produced solar modules by powering their projects with First Solar’s technology. This validates the value that our customers place in our differentiation, not just in technology but our way of doing business.”

The module producer’s $1.1 billion Alabama factory and $185 million expansion of its existing facilities in Ohio are expected to bring its total investment in American manufacturing to over $4 billion. The company expects to have more than 20 GW of annual global nameplate manufacturing capacity by 2025. It also expects to add at least 850 new manufacturing jobs and over 100 new R&D jobs, taking its total number of direct jobs in the U.S. to over 3,000 people in four states by 2025.

First Solar generated $1 billion of revenue in Q4 2022, representing a 10% increase from $900 million in revenue from Q4 2021, as the solar module producer ended 2022 with a surge of 48.3 GW (DC) of net booking, representing a 2.76x increase over 17.5 GW (DC) net bookings in 2021.

With this strategic agreement, EDPR increases its commitment to U.S. domestic content, while also pursuing its strategy of supply chain and technology diversification. The partnership between both companies started in 2019, when EDPR acquired a 50% stake in a 278 MW solar portfolio developed by First Solar.

To supercharge the U.S. electric vehicle market, the Department of Energy (DOE) and automaker Stellantis joined forces to launch the Battery Workforce Challenge, a three-year collegiate engineering competition with vocational training and youth education in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) programs.

The DOE has set a bold target to address climate change and put the U.S. on a path to achieve net-zero emissions, economy-wide by 2050. Key to this goal are the design and development of advanced batteries to electrify the transportation and energy sectors and a skilled workforce for positions within the electric vehicle production, EV charging and battery markets.

Managed by the Argonne National Laboratory and co-sponsored by Stellantis, the government to industry partnership is aimed at building the next generation of automotive engineers, technicians and workers to address the unprecedented demand for domestic EVs and batteries.

“American leadership in the global battery supply chain will be based not only on our innovation, but also on our skilled workforce of engineers, designers, scientists, production workers, and technicians,” said Michael Berube, Deputy Assistant Secretary for Sustainable Transportation and Fuels at the DOE. ​“This comprehensive workforce program will build an educational ecosystem delivering training and education for high school graduates, and vocational and transitional workers, fostering a diverse talent pipeline of trained engineers, workers and technicians who can charge North America’s battery industry forward.”

For more information or to enroll in the Battery Workforce Challenge, click here.

Kicking off in fall 2023, the Battery Workforce Challenge includes a battery design and development student competition in which universities and trade schools can design, build, test and integrate an advanced EV battery into a future Stellantis model EV. Stellantis is the name of the rebranded automaker company formed by the 2021 merger of Fiat Chrysler Automobiles and PSA Group, while its vehicle brands include Alfa Romeo, Chrysler, Citroen, Fiat, Jeep, Maserati, Opel, Peugeot and Ram, among others.

Teams will follow industry milestones focused on battery design, simulation, controls, testing, and vehicle integration and demonstration. Participants will also learn project management, communications, teamwork and problem-solving skills that will provide experience and ready them for future careers.

Each year, winning teams will share awards across engineering and sponsor-related categories, as well as about $100,000 in industry-provided prize money. However, the most highly valued prize may be employment and collaboration and networking opportunities with sponsors related to Stellantis or other companies, according to the platform’s website.

Additional workforce and education initiatives will complement the challenge, including a national Career-Connected Learning Management System to provide accessible and equitable training for learners across the education pipeline, as well as high school graduates and transitional workers, to connect participants to top jobs from the nation’s leading automotive and battery employers.

“We’re excited to welcome 11 teams to participate in the Battery Workforce Challenge, which is a great opportunity for college and vocational students to experience high-impact collaborations,” said Paul Kearns, director at Argonne. ​“We are pleased to manage this competition which supports both advanced battery innovations and the development of the next generation of battery researchers and professionals.”

The Inflation Reduction Act amended the Qualified Plug-in Electric Drive Motor Vehicle Credit (IRC 30D), now known as the Clean Vehicle Credit, and added a new requirement for final EV assembly in North America that took effect on August 17, 2022, according to the DOE.

For new fully electric, fuel cell electric, and plug-in hybrid EVs acquired, delivered or placed in service after August 16, 2022, the final assembly requirement applies. For vehicles placed in service after January 1, 2023, the Clean Vehicle Credit provisions are subject to updated guidance from the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) and Department of the Treasury.

Under the IRA, the light-duty electric vehicle (EV) tax credit of up to $7,500 per vehicle has been extended through 2032, which will allow millions of Americans to utilize this credit and switch to an EV. The previous credit, with a cap of 200,000 vehicles per automaker, had already ended for Tesla and General Motors and would have also ended for a few other automakers, reports the Electrification Coalition. However, other modifications, including an MSRP cap, income cap, assembly/sourcing requirements, and options to transfer the EV tax credit to a dealer at the point of sale, have been added under the IRA legislation.

To receive the list of qualifying automakers and EV models in which the tax credit applies, click here.

CPower Energy has joined the Virtual Power Plant Partnership (VP3) that was founded in January of this year by RMI. VP3 aims to move the industry and transform policy toward increased support for scaling energy assets such as electric vehicles (EVs), smart thermostats, appliances, batteries, solar arrays, and others to support the grid.

“Virtual power plants can provide essential grid services by reducing peak power demand and improving resilience in a world of increasingly extreme climate events,” said Mark Dyson, managing director of RMI’s Carbon-Free Electricity Program. “VP3 is excited to partner with CPower and other industry leaders to grow the market for VPPs and ensure the energy transition doesn’t miss a beat.”

CPower, based in Baltimore, Maryland, is owned by LS Power, a development, investment, and operating company focused on the power and energy infrastructure sector.  CPower’s EnerWise Site Optimization solution is a virtual energy manager designed to address the challenges around optimization of distributed energy resources (DER).

The company has 6.3 GW of DER capacity at more than 17,000 sites across the U.S and was recently recognized by Wood Mackenzie as the national leader for flexible capacity in its recent Virtual Power Plant (VPP) Market report. By joining VP3, CPower expects to offer perspective on how to expand VPP access for larger C&I energy users, as well as DER owners and operators.

The VP3 initiative follows in the path of successful institutional spinoffs in the electric sector space previously incubated by RMI including the Clean Energy Buyers Association and the Energy Web Foundation.

Initial funding of the VP3 effort was made possible by General Motors and Google Nest. Founding members include Ford, General Motors, Google Nest, OhmConnect, Olivine, SPAN, SunPower, Sunrun, SwitchDin, and Virtual Peaker.

VP3 is working toward a future where businesses, households, and communities are empowered through VPPs that can help to support cost-effective energy, emissions reductions, and a more resilient electricity grid. To achieve this, VP3 will work to:

1.       Catalog, research, and communicate VPP benefits
2.       Develop industry-wide best practices, standards, and roadmaps
3.       Inform and shape policy development

“We are proud to join our industry colleagues as a member of RMI’s VP3 Initiative and lend CPower’s experience in managing the most flexible capacity of any VPP provider in the U.S.,” said John Horton, president and CEO of CPower.

Read about the benefits of virtual power plants here.

Sunnova Energy International announced a partnership with David Energy, a Brooklyn, N.Y.-based retail energy provider, to deploy a virtual power plant (VPP) service called Adaptive Retail in Texas. 

The VPP leverages Sunnova’s solar and battery storage systems, optimizing fleet interaction of energy assets connected to the electric grid. By aggregating customer resources, Sunnova can provide a more reliable, flexible source of energy that can respond to changes in demand and market conditions. 

“Our Adaptive Retail plan represents a significant departure from the traditional centralized power generation model, putting more control and flexibility in the hands of our customers,” said William (John) Berger, chief executive officer of Sunnova. 

Sunnova’s fleet of batteries will respond in real time to David Energy’s electricity modeling software platform, dispatching the fleet in response to wholesale electricity market prices.  

David Energy’s platform will allow distributed energy resources to integrate the value of demand response and bid their capacity into the Electric Reliability Council of Texas’s (ERCOT) ancillary markets, tapping into new revenue streams that the company said will help boost customer savings. 

“By combining a retail energy plan with software that connects to a broad range of devices many customers already have, David Energy’s platform can turn Texans’ homes into power plants. The potential to bring hundreds of megawatts of much needed flexible capacity to ERCOT via these VPPs in the near future is very real,” said James McGinniss, chief executive officer of David Energy.

Texas has 1.5 GW of rooftop and other small-scale solar, while on a per-capita basis, small-scale solar in Texas trails most of the other ten sunniest U.S. states. Research has found that rooftop solar adoption rises sharply as the value of PV systems to building owners increases. 

Texas storm 

The value of VPPs in Texas can be exemplified by the Winter Storm Uri event of 2021, when much-higher-than-expected demand caused wholesale market prices to balloon up to the capped rate of $9,000/MW. This led to widespread blackouts and customers receiving energy bills in the multiple-thousands of dollars. 

The inability to meet demand was caused by a combination of nonfunctioning natural gas equipment, and congestion on the grid from intense localized energy demand, that caused substations to cut power to stabilize the grid. A study by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission found 87% of the outages were caused by issues with natural gas supply as uninsulated stations failed to function. 

Grid congestion and bottlenecks are an acute problem for Texas. A vast bulk of the large-scale solar projects are in the western, sunnier part of Texas, and are delivered to population centers in the east. 

Congestion rents, or the cost of transmission services, are expected to worsen in many areas across ERCOT, despite hundreds of millions of dollars planned to build transmission to alleviate the congestion. 

Solar and batteries can serve a critical role in alleviating this congestion, reducing renewables curtailment, smoothing the curve of wholesale market demand spikes, and providing critical backup power in times of crisis. 

VPP pilot 

In September 2022, ERCOT approved a pilot project to test the efficacy of VPPs to support the grid. The pilot project, ERCOT says, will enable premises with any combination of generation, energy storage, or controllable load with the capability of 1 MW or less to participate in ERCOT’s wholesale markets. 

The project will at first enroll up to 80 MW of aggregated resources. Each local aggregation must have the capability to provide at least 100 kW of response, through demand response capability and injection capability. These aggregations will be eligible to provide up to 40 MW of “non-spinning reserve service,” or capacity that can be started or interrupted within 30 minutes as needed. 

ERCOT’s goals for the pilot project are to examine how aggregated DERs can support reliability, enhance the wholesale market, incentivize investment, potentially reduce transmission and distribution investments, and support better load management during emergencies. 

Following the first one-year phase of the pilot project, ERCOT expects to design additional phases that could expand participation. ERCOT will also study, using data from the pilot project, how different dispatch and pricing schemes could improve its efforts in managing transmission congestion. 

“Amazed at how quickly a group of private sector folks designed the bones of Texas’ first distributed energy resource (DER) export program,” said Arushi Frank, U.S. energy markets policy lead at Tesla and co-chair of ERCOT’s DER Task Force. In May 2022, Tesla rallied owners of its home-scale batteries to demonstrate how they could help power the Texas grid.

Nevados Engineering, Inc., a Calif.-based solar tracker company, signed a strategic partnership and long-term agreement to supply its integrated technology platform of all-terrain solar trackers and energy optimization software to Ampliform, a U.S.-based solar project developer, operator and asset owner.

Ampliform was formed in 2022 when Pennsylvania-based Prospect14 formed a joint venture with with a group of  energy investors and operators with expertise in power generation and quantitative trading. The company is backed by investors which include the Jones Family Office, Barings, the George Kaiser Family Foundation, and others.

The company is installing the Nevados platform across its entire U.S. tracker portfolio, across a near-term project pipeline of 700 MW construction taking place between 2023 and 2025 and a long-term development pipeline of 2 GW.

“We selected Nevados because their all-terrain solar tracker eliminates the need for costly, risky and destructive mass grading for every site in our portfolio – and their team is a pleasure to work with,” said Robert Stoever, senior vice president, EPC of Ampliform. “Partnering with Nevados will make our solar investments more profitable while preserving the natural vegetation and topography of the land.”

Nevados will initially supply 48 MW of all-terrain trackers for two Ampliform projects currently under construction in Pennsylvania. Nevados will provide performance optimization with their TRACE software and full-service project management, design optimization, and engineering support for all Ampliform projects regardless of size, which the company says is standard for all of its agreements.  

“We are thrilled to support Ampliform because our product is a perfect match for their hilly portfolio,” said Yezin Taha, chief executive officer of Nevados. “Yet the benefits of Nevados’ technology and partner-centric business model go beyond the challenges of uneven terrain. Our integrated solar tracking platform will create new project opportunities for Ampliform by reducing their civil engineering and construction costs and improving system performance one row at a time.” 

Nevados says its solar tracking platform is engineered to eliminate site grading in projects with uneven terrain, thus avoiding time and cost-intensive permitting, construction, and revegetation steps, and dramatically accelerates project schedules. The proprietary design sets Nevados trackers apart from its competitors, with bearings that the company says allow for installation on slopes up to 37% with slope changes as great as 26% across a foundation.

Nevados reports that row-specific tracking algorithms, controls and tilt schedules improve energy yield in projects at a granular level. Gaps in bearings also improve bifacial gains, the company claims.

Other unique design aspects include non-continuous torque tubes, shorter pilings and large tolerances, all of which simplify and speed up the installation, according to Nevados. Top-clamp clips also reportedly help solar modules to align during installation, and accommodate different module sizes. The torque tube and damper designs improve wind performance and, as Jenya Meydbray, chief commercial officer at Nevados told pv magazine USA,  have proven to withstand hurricane-force winds with zero structural damage.

Nevados is headquartered in San Francisco and backed by institutional capital. In this op-ed published in 2019, Yezin Taha describes all-terrain tracking and explains how it is a potentially superior solution for sites with sloped terrain.

Nevados will be exhibiting at Intersolar North America next week, Feb. 14-16, in Long Beach, Calif., where its team will be located at Booth#19.

Seneca Solar, the energy solutions division of Seneca Holdings, LLC, is expanding its strategic partnership with Alternative Energy Development Group (AEDG), a developer of commercial and industrial clean energy projects.

Seneca Solar is a Tribal-owned business whose profits go directly toward supporting the on-territory needs of the members of the Seneca Nation, whose territory is in western New York. The company was established to deliver projects at scale for customers wanting their climate dollars to support historically underserved communities. Seneca Solar reports that it is building a Tribal workforce and Indigenous enterprise capacity to benefit current and future generations.

Seneca Solar’s role in the partnership with AEDG is to provide project management expertise, leveraging the capabilities of the $300 million business of Seneca Holdings. 

“Our collaboration with Seneca Solar enables us to support customers in the achievement of their ESG goals while also helping underserved communities around the world gain economic self-determination,” said Chris Fraga, founder and chief executive officer of Alternative Energy Development Group.

Former Tesla project manager Kevin Ademu-John will join Seneca Solar to integrate the company’s program management expertise with AEDG’s growing portfolio. At Tesla, he managed large portfolios of residential solar projects as well as Powerwall storage projects.

“I look forward to leveraging the experience I gained at Tesla to help AEDG and Seneca Solar expand their offerings,” said Ademu-John. “The partnership is combining the strong capabilities of both companies with a focus on energy equity to serve communities who have been left out of the clean-energy transition for too long.”

Seneca Solar and AEDG have collaborated since early 2022. Previous projects include conducting an extensive feasibility assessment for a Fortune 100 global company on a 10 MW solar project in Papua New Guinea, which would be built, owned, and operated by local Indigenous communities. 

“AEDG has been an ideal partner for Seneca Solar as we work to support Native and other underserved communities with Earth-healing solutions,” said Jeffrey Ellis, chief executive officer of Seneca Holdings. “Together, we are showing the mutual benefit of a more traditional company collaborating with a Tribally owned company.”

Working closely with AEDG, Ademu-John will help manage five portfolios of distributed generation projects across multiple U.S. states. With total capital expenditures of $135 million, more than 55 MW of projects are projected to offset 21,610 metric tons of greenhouse gas emissions annually. The largest of the portfolios comprises 32 MW across five Northeast solar projects. These include municipal, low-to-moderate-income (LMI), and commercial-designated solar projects. In California, two solar projects totaling 4.9 MW under development will serve industrial customers.

In the Mid-Atlantic region, two Senaca Solar projects totaling 1 MW will serve retail customers. An additional three projects with 14 MW of power capacity will serve a major U.S. retail customer’s corporate headquarters and distribution facilities in the Mid-Atlantic and Southwest region.

In New England, Seneca will deploy an energy efficiency project for an agricultural customer providing energy and thermal heat. The 4 MW project is projected to reduce the customer’s electricity costs by 20% while increasing their energy efficiency.

In addition to helping Native communities develop and benefit from renewable energy projects, Seneca Solar and AEDG are helping companies of all sizes amplify the impacts of their environmental, social, and governance (ESG) programs. 

Under the Inflation Reduction Act, the Clean Energy and Sustainability Accelerator will seed state and local clean energy financing institutions and support deployment of clean energy technologies. Half of those investments are prioritized for disadvantaged communities. Furthermore, programs specific to tribal communities offer rebates on the purchase of efficient electric appliances, to bring clean power to homes that have lacked electricity.

LMI communities, tribal authorities and other disadvantaged groups may be eligible for a 10% ITC adder in addition to the 30% solar investment tax credit (ITC) and 30% standalone storage ITC. Some $7 billion worth of grants can be awarded from the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund of the IRA for facilities such as solar-plus-storage projects of 5 MW or less on recognized tribal land.  In various instances a tribal authority can recover more than 50% to 70% of costs, if conditions such as the domestic battery content and labor, and the environmental justice, are met.

Three companies, Bullrock Renewables, NXTGenREA, and Delaware River Solar, have formed a joint venture to construct, own and operate a 250 MW portfolio of community solar projects in New York State.

The three expect the projects to be online by 2025. The portfolio will include 120 MW to be completed at the end of 2024 and 130 MW operational by March 2025. Combined, the three companies have delivered more than $1.5 billion of solar assets since 2012, making the group one of the largest private entities in the space.

New York remains one of the major markets for community solar in the United States, passing 1 GW of installed capacity in March 2022. The state has a goal of reaching 70 % of electricity generation from renewable resources by 2030. New York also targets 10 GW of solar by the 2030 deadline.

Bullrock Renewables is a Vermont-based company with over 130 MW of solar project development history in New England and New York. The company focuses on new development, construction, purchasing existing assets, and lending.

NXTGenREA will be providing its services via XGR, a new renewables and finance platform launched by the company. XGR is built on over 30 years of renewable technology tax enhanced investment experience. The company has financed over 300 solar assets since 2011 and is integrated with flexible tax equity partnerships.

Delaware River Solar, based in New York, has constructed over 45 community solar facilities and reached over 20,000 customers via its subscription service in six years of operation.

“Renewable energy, specifically solar, is boosting the economy, creating jobs, and leaving the world a better place,” said Ross Sanner, chief executive officer, Bullrock Renewables. “We look forward to continuing to expand our relationships in the clean energy sector as we continue to scale this exciting company.’’

Much of the community solar developed in the state has received benefits from the state’s NY-Sun program, a state solar incentive program for distributed generation assets. Since being launched in 2011, NY-Sun has put forth more than $1.8 billion to advance solar buildout in the state.

This funding has supported the installation of solar on the rooftop or property of 165,000 homes, spanning every county in New York, providing over $1.3 billion in incentives and leveraging $6.1 billion in private investment. It has led to over 2,500% solar growth in the State, and the delivery of enough renewable energy to power over 627,000 New York homes.

New York now houses 12,000 jobs in the solar industry and has driven down the cost of solar 70% in 10 years. NY-Sun has also funded $30 million for projects aimed at benefiting environmental justice and disadvantaged communities.

Sunrun, a leading residential solar and energy storage provider, announced it has appointed Lunar Energy as manager of its national virtual power plant (VPP) division. The solar installer currently has VPP operations in New England, New York, California, Arizona, and Hawaii, with plans to expand into more states and territories.

“A VPP is a virtual aggregation of distributed energy resources like PV, energy storage, EV chargers and demand-responsive devices (such as water heaters, thermostats, and appliances),” said Jigar Shah, director, U.S. Department of Energy Loan Programs Office in a previous Op-Ed provided to pv magazine.

Sunrun will make use of Lunar Gridshare software, an energy management system that currently manages over 35,000 home batteries in Japan and 1,600 in Europe. The new partnership will add tens of thousands of batteries aggregated in Lunar’s network, said the company. Lunar said it is also developing its own residential battery storage product, which will be available in the coming months.

“VPPs do more than provide decarbonization and grid services – they increasingly give grid operators a large-scale and utility-grade alternative to new generation and system buildout through automated efficiency, capacity support, and non-wire alternatives,” said Shah. “By deploying grid assets more efficiently, an aggregation of distributed resources lowers the cost of power for everybody, especially VPP participants.”

A case study submitted to pv magazine on the potential of homes with solar-plus-storage as VPP participants can be found here. 

Mary Powell, CEO of Sunrun, celebrated Lunar Gridshare’s ability to manage multiple devices from several different manufacturers at the same time, calling it a “game changer” for the company.

“To build the grid of the future, it is so powerful to be able to flawlessly orchestrate all the various distributed energy technologies in our customers’ homes,” said Powell.

Sunrun has been a pioneer in aggregating batteries in the U.S. In 2019, the residential installer secured a 20 MW bid to participate in New England’s ISO 2022-2023 forward capacity market, one of the first contracts of this type in the United States.

As part of the bid, Sunrun said it would deploy distributed solar and battery storage to about 5,000 customers in Massachusetts. It will be required to offer the grid 20 MW of power, 24 hours a day for the one-year period.

In return, Sunrun will be paid $3.80/kW/month, representing a $912,000 total contract value. Homeowners who signed up for the program agree to allow their battery to be discharged overnight. In exchange, they receive an upfront cash incentive as either a payment or a reduction in the upfront cost of their system.

In November, Sunrun was selected by the Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority (PREPA) to deploy a 17 MW network of solar-plus-storage virtual power plants (VPP) across the Caribbean island.  The VPP network marks the first large-scale distributed storage program on the island to date.

Prone to repeat hurricanes over the past few years, Puerto Rico’s VPP network will harden the island’s power grid by networking more than 7,000 Sunrun residential solar plus energy storage systems.

“We’re solving energy insecurity on the island by switching the model so that solar energy is generated on rooftops and stored in batteries to power each home, and then shared with neighbors, creating a clean shared energy economy,” said Mary Powell, Sunrun CEO.

More than 3 million Puerto Rico residents were without power following the Hurricane Fiona landfall on Puerto Rico on September 17, while Sunrun customers on the island were able to use power through extended outages, providing more than 350,000 hours of backup power to thousands of homes.

Grid services

In a report published by the University of Otago in New Zealand, researchers found that that the collective use of batteries had dramatic effects on both load smoothing and peak demand shaving, two important services in a stable and efficient grid.

Aggregation of smart storage led to a reduction in per-house battery requirements by 50% for load-smoothing needs and by 90% for peak shaving.

The researchers said the results make a case for coordinated battery deployment at the street or building level for multiple economic benefits. These benefits include the potential reduction in energy storage cost for homeowners (who could buy a smaller unit), benefits to the grid in easing demand and load related strains, and benefits to solar developers who can add another value chain to their operations by facilitating these grid services.

As an example, if peak shaving occurred for demand above 3 kW per house, deploying batteries individually for 20 houses would require 120 kWh of storage.  By contrast, deploying batteries collectively would only require 7 kWh, the researchers said. Sharing batteries or having one battery per 20 houses would be a less expensive approach to providing these services, they said.

Nextracker to go public  Flex announced that its subsidiary, Nextracker, has publicly filed a registration statement for an initial public offering.

Tigo Energy raises $50 million from L1 Energy  Tigo’s new capital is from L1 Energy, an investment fund of LetterOne (L1), which manages $6 billion in energy investments worldwide.

Utilities move ahead with Hawaii’s first two community solar and storage projects on Moloka’i  The Moloka’i Island projects have combined output of 2.45 MW community solar and 11.1 MWh storage systems.

LG Energy Solution and Hanwha Group partner on battery development  The South Korean partners will invest in ESS-exclusive battery production lines in the U.S. and develop technologies for ESS battery solutions.

FREYR Battery signs 10 GWh plus battery agreement  The non-binding agreement with Impact Clean Power covers batteries produced through 2030 and may be worth $1.8 billion.

Fossil fuels already peaked, growth in renewables exponential  The Rocky Mountain Institute said global demand for fossil fuels peaked in 2019, and renewables are occupying that demand due to low costs and shifts in global capital.

South Carolina utility Dominion Energy will add considerable renewable energy generation and grid-balancing energy storage capacity as it has signed a 108 MW solar, 198 MWh energy storage power purchase agreement.

The project is developed by Southern Current, an energyRe company. The 572-acre facility is expected to reach commercial operations and begin delivering clean energy at the grid-scale in 2024. Named Lone Star solar, the project stands alone as the largest battery under development in Dominion Energy South Carolina service territory.

Next steps for the project include acceptance from the Public Service Commission of South Carolina and other related regulatory approvals. Once complete, the project will represent an estimated $200 million invested toward powering the equivalent of about 17,000 homes and businesses.

Lone Star Solar is expected to generate $10 million in local property taxes and create 185 temporary construction jobs. In total, the project is expected to avoid more than 140,000 metric tons of CO2 emissions.

“This agreement will stimulate significant local investment, job creation and emissions reductions across the region. Building on Southern Current’s industry leadership, we are harnessing our expertise and experience to advance renewable energy in the Southeastern United States and beyond,” said Miguel Prado, chief executive officer, energyRe.

Southern Current was acquired by energyRe in Q3 2022, bringing along a portfolio of more than 9 GW of projects in development.

energyRe is advancing several high-profile renewable energy projects across the United States, including Clean Path, NY, which is an $11 billion public-private partnership to develop 3,800 MW of new wind and solar power in New York. The project also includes a 175-mile, underground 1,300 MW HVDC transmission line in the state.

Upon operation in 2027, Clean Path NY is planned to deliver 8 million MWh of electricity annually and reduce fossil fuel-fired electric generation in New York by 22% per year on average.

Distributed joint venture

In a joint venture with Starwood Energy, energyRe also launched Radial Power, a distributed solar developer serving large real estate, commercial and industrial customers.

In partnership with Related Companies, a large-scale real estate investor, the joint venture seeks to build cost-saving distributed solar assets. Starwood and Related Companies together have over 102,000 residences in their portfolios.

Radial Power’s stated goals include leveraging its codified set of proprietary tools and processes to design and deliver a fully financed deployment plan for portfolios with 1,000+ assets of various classes within 45 days from initial contact.

“The increasing cost competitiveness of clean energy technologies, maturing regulatory frameworks, and local, state, and federal incentives serve as tailwinds for adoptions of clean energy solutions,” said John Bates, CEO of Radial Power. “Radial Power seeks to access this enormous market opportunity and to deliver significant economic and environmental value to stakeholders across the board.”

South Carolina solar

South Carolina’s solar industry was essentially born six years ago in 2016, when a boom in both residential and utility-scale solar occurred in the state. Before this, there was an infinitesimal cumulative capacity of solar. In 2020, the state experienced peak deployment, with nearly 600 MW of capacity installed, the vast majority of which was utility-scale.

South Carolina ranks among the top three sunniest states east of the Mississippi River along with Florida and Georgia. However, it lags cloudier states like New York and Massachusetts in terms of solar deployment. Thus far, just over 2 GW of solar has been installed in the state.

In total, the Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA) reports that $2.6 billion has been invested in solar in South Carolina to date. There are 73 solar companies, including 18 manufacturers in the state. SEIA projects an additional 1.4 GW will be installed over the next five years, which would mark a deceleration in deployment compared to the previous five. This projection may not include the increased buildout that is expected following the passage of the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022, which includes a record $370 billion in climate and energy spending.

Read about South Carolina’s solar incentives here.

Inverter and battery provider SolarEdge announced it has found a new partner in Sunnova, a residential and commercial energy-as-a-service (EaaS) provider.

Sunnova’s EaaS offering is a holistic energy management system that integrates solar, energy storage, electric vehicle charging, standby generators, smart appliances, grid services, and home climate controls. Now, SolarEdge’s home battery will be offered alongside the full set of Sunnova EaaS products and services.

The home battery offers stability in an environment of energy price inflation and volatility, grid instability, and continually shifting rooftop solar utility net-metered credit payment calculations.

SolarEdge’s battery is characterized by its DC-coupled design, which requires just one power conversion when consuming solar-generated electricity. Traditional AC-coupled batteries require three power conversions, losing efficiency each time the power is shifted from DC to AC and back again.

The company said this efficiency adds up over time, and over the course of a year, it can lead to 10 full days of saved energy when compared to a typical 10 kW solar array in self-consumption mode (no battery). The battery is robust enough to provide continuous power, allowing users to consume stored power for large devices like washing machines and HVAC systems for longer periods of time.

Each battery comes equipped with 9.7 kWh of backup capacity, and up to nine batteries (three per inverter) can be stacked to achieve an 87.3 kWh backup system with 30 kW of continuous power. The battery has a round-trip efficiency of 94.5%. It is capable of being charged while simultaneously exporting power to the grid for utility bill credits.

“Homeowners’ energy demands are increasing at a time when utility bills are skyrocketing and grid instability is becoming more frequent,” said William Berger, chief executive of Sunnova. “[The partnership] marks an important next step forward in our mission to deliver highly robust, industry-leading solutions that meet homeowner demand to live in a more energy-efficient and energy-independent way.”

The battery is compliant with the UL9540A advanced safety standard. SolarEdge said the battery was designed to meet installer demand for a residential solution that is fast and cost-effective to install. The battery cabinet layout features accessible cable management and wireless communication to speed up installation and decrease commissioning times.

Sunnova (NOVA) and SolarEdge (SEDG) are among the largest publicly traded solar industry companies on the New York Stock Exchange.

Distributed standalone energy storage continues to be an in-demand technology in the Texas ERCOT region, as a new joint venture between Regis Energy Partners and Excelsior Energy Capital dubbed REX Storage Holdings committed $400 million to energy storage development in the region. 

The portfolio begins with the announcement of four distributed standalone 9.9 MW battery energy storage systems. Regis Energy Partners will operate as independent developer, owner, and operator, while Excelsior will act as an investment fund. The initial four battery systems are expected to come online in 2023. 

Energy storage developer Stem will provide battery hardware and operate its AI-powered energy management software system. Stem will also offer in-market solutions for ERCOT development and provide ongoing services once the batteries are operational. 

“The energy storage market in Texas represents a significant growth opportunity for leading renewable energy investors like Excelsior who recognize the rich merchant revenue opportunities in the ERCOT market. Stem has spent the past decade helping project developers and independent power producers (IPPs) get projects to commission and drive higher economic output with our AI-driven Athena platform, energy consulting and support services, and ability to manage and optimize projects over time. We will continue to partner with regional developers like Regis to collectively help investors achieve their energy optimization goals in the region while accelerating the adoption of renewable assets,” John Carrington, chief executive officer of Stem

Standalone energy storage systems now offer greater value under the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022, which extends the 30% investment tax credit to the technology. Previously, only co-located batteries paired with renewable energy generation were eligible for the credit. 

Texas grid to benefit from distributed storage 

In 2021, Winter Storm Uri became a landmark example of the unpredictability of climate, and its harsh impact on the legally mandated core requirements of electric utility companies: to provide electric service reliably and to furnish just and reasonable prices to customers.

The electric grid’s functional collapse during the storm was an example of the ERCOT grid’s failure of achieving those mandated goals. By some estimates, the storm caused $130 billion in near-term economic damages, and the long-term consequences have not yet been fully assessed.

The sudden spike in unplanned-for energy demand caused by extreme weather led to wholesale market spot prices skyrocketing up to $9,000/MW, and that price held for over three days. Historically, the price cap is only hit momentarily, and pressures are relieved quickly.

This unprecedented price spike was caused by a combination of nonfunctioning natural gas equipment, and congestion on the grid from intense localized energy demand, that caused substations to cut power to stabilize the grid. A study by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission found 87% of the outages were caused by issues with natural gas supply as uninsulated stations failed to function.

A panel at the RE+ event in San Antonio reviewing the ERCOT grid shared that 40,000 power outage events occurred in the U.S. last year, a 50% increase over 2020.

The figures highlight two problems. First, the centralized grid is failing the people who rely on it. Second, the climate is adding more pressure that will need to be dealt with to keep these systems running adequately.

This is where energy storage comes into play, and where intelligent planning of the grid is critical. At RE+ San Antonio, residential installer Sunrun shared that its home battery systems provided 234,000 hours of backup power following Winter Storm Uri. Interest in batteries skyrocketed, with hits on Sunrun’s battery-related website pages increasing 350% in the direct aftermath. This backup was about more than just comfort, but also about safety. Uri took an estimated 246 lives in Texas.

The financial cost of such events is massive, too. Retail energy providers who did not properly hedge against the risks of the volatile ERCOT wholesale market were hit with fees so sharp that many  went out of business overnight. Homeowners in predatory contracts were also exposed directly to the wholesale market, and many were faced with multi-thousand-dollar utility bills.

Congestion on the grid was a key cause of the problem. Delivering power from generation centers in remote places across long distances to load centers in large cities often runs into bottlenecks, leading to curtailment and scheduled blackouts.

A vast bulk of the large-scale solar projects are in the western, sunnier part of Texas, and are delivered to population centers in the east. The issue can be looked at as a microcosm of the entire United States, where legislators are suggesting building a transmission superhighway from the west to the eastern seaboard.

Congestion rents, or the cost of transmission services, are expected to worsen in many areas across ERCOT, despite hundreds of millions of dollars planned to build transmission to alleviate the congestion.

Solar and batteries can serve a critical role in alleviating this congestion, reducing renewables curtailment, smoothing the curve of wholesale market demand spikes, and providing critical backup power in times of crisis.

When located closer to load centers, or the location of energy demand, batteries can readily dispatch backup power. By locating the batteries as “nodes” further down the grid, pressure is taken off key bottlenecks like substations, which shut down in times of extreme peak demand, and are extremely expensive to upgrade.

Batteries can also serve as peak-demand shavers, avoiding those massive spikes in wholesale market volatility. This is the main way they are currently deployed in ERCOT, and peak demand shaving represents a massive market opportunity. At RE+ utility-scale solar and storage developer 8-minute energy shared that 95% of the revenue generated by a two-hour duration battery is earned in the first hour of dispatch. 8minute said the market opportunities for batteries could be improved, if “predefined revenue streams” are created, like in the capacity-based, forward looking market of California’s CAISO grid.

This article was amended on December 13, 2022 to reflect the fact that the four projects are each 9.9 MW, rather than a combined total of 9.9 MW as previously stated.

The Biden Administration has issued a request to Congress to fund a $3 billion buildout of rooftop solar and energy storage in Puerto Rico to make a more climate-resilient energy grid.

The funds would be provided to the Grid Deployment Office account of the Department of Energy (DOE), providing grants to low-income households in Puerto Rico to purchase and install solar and battery storage systems and energy distribution technology. The administration said these systems can increase resilience for households during blackouts and outages resulting from natural disasters.

Puerto Rico has suffered widespread blackout after blackout as hurricanes continue to intensify and knock out existing infrastructure. In 2017, Hurricanes Irma and Maria led to long-lasting widespread blackouts and the deaths of over 4,000 people. The damage to the grid took over 11 months to repair and reactivate.

“Equipping the most vulnerable households with rooftop solar could quite literally save lives. These families deserve the same access to energy security as the people who are already buying solar panels and batteries in droves,” said Raúl Grijalva, House Natural Resources Committee Chair.

A growing number of Puerto Ricans have adopted rooftop solar, but the majority continue to rely on the central power grid or backup diesel-fired generators. Electricity blackouts have exacerbated public health crises and researchers estimate there was a 62% increase in mortality in the three months directly following Maria’s landfall.

Following the landfall of Hurricane Fiona in 2021, solar-plus-storage systems played an instrumental role in keeping the lights on while the centralized grid was down. Sunnova Energy International reported that its solar and battery storage systems powered the homes of over 30,000 customers in Puerto Rico during the aftermath of Hurricane Fiona, from September 18 to October 1, 2022, while the grid was down.

During those two weeks, most residents in Puerto Rico were without power, Sunnova reports that its SunSafe solar-plus-storage systems generated a total of nearly 2 GWh of energy total with 3.4 million hours of aggregate back-up power, or an average of 128 hours of power generated per household.  These customers averaged 5.3 days of solar-plus-storage battery backup with many residents remaining dependent on their Sunnova system for more than 10 days.

“Out of our more than 30,000 Sunnova SunSafe systems in Puerto Rico, only 59 required repair in the two weeks following the Hurricane, and Sunnova dispatched crews immediately to repair or replace non-performing systems, whether they were leased or owned,” said Michael Grasso, chief marketing and growth officer of Sunnova. “Looking ahead, we see an opportunity for distributed power to play a larger role in Puerto Rico by networking our solar + storage systems into powerful virtual power plants that would complement the centralized electric system and drive increased grid resiliency.”

The Biden administration also requested $35 million is for technical assistance to other agencies, local entities, and communities throughout Puerto Rico to assist with energy recovery and grid modernization activities; and salaries and travel expenses for dedicated DOE staff for Puerto Rico. These activities include convening stakeholders to prioritize near-term investments and develop mitigation strategies against future storms and working directly with communities to design specific energy solutions.

Analysis by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) found that Puerto Rico has 40GW of solar potential. NREL modeled pathways to the targets set by Puerto Rico’s Act 17: 20% renewable generation by 2022, 40% by 2025, 60% by 2040, and 100% by 2050.

NREL reported that Puerto Rico has 20 GW of utility-scale solar potential, mostly along the coasts, and 20 GW of distributed solar potential. Just 10 GW of solar could meet Puerto Rico’s needs, as estimated by Solar + Energy Storage Association (SESA) president PJ Wilson.

SESA’s Chief Policy Officer Javier Rúa said the NREL study of Puerto Rico’s solar potential “represents the commitment that we’ve seen by the Biden administration and the agencies to help Puerto Rico fulfill its self-legislated goal to 100 percent renewables.” Wilson said the study will be “a big step towards every Puerto Rican having solar and storage and completely resilient power during the next hurricane.”

Fusion Fuel, a modular solar-to-hydrogen facility provider based in Portugal, and Electus Energy, a hydrogen fleet-fueling and power infrastructure developer, announced the two have entered an exclusive joint venture agreement to construct a 75 MW green hydrogen facility in Bakersfield, California.

The proposed project is a solar-to-hydrogen site that would make use of Fusion Fuel’s proprietary hydrogen electrolyzer technology, called HEVO. The company said the facility, its first in the United States, would produce up to 9,300 tons of hydrogen fuel per year to fuel heavy-duty trucks.

Fusion Fuel’s HEVO technology is a miniaturized electrolyzer, affixed to the back of concentrated solar power (CSP) panel, which utilizes both photovoltaic-generated electricity and thermal energy. By using both heat and electricity, the electrolyzer’s efficiency is boosted considerably, thereby reducing the levelized cost of green hydrogen, said the company. The technology also uses dual-axis trackers to follow the sun throughout the day.

“By integrating the HEVO directly to the CPV module, not only are we able to utilize the electrical energy to power the electrochemical reaction without transport or conversion losses, but we can also recover that wasted thermal energy and use it to pre-heat the feed water, reducing the electrical load required to split water by roughly 10%,” said Fusion Fuel.

An investment of about $180 million is expected to be made to launch the 75 MW California project, with final investment decision to be made in early 2024 and project commissioning in early 2025.

“In just under two years as a public company, Fusion Fuel has established itself as a key player in the Iberian green hydrogen ecosystem. However, we knew that entering a new market, particularly one as large and complex as North America, would require a cornerstone project and a credible partner,” said Jason Baran, chief commercial officer at Fusion Fuel.

Once operational, the project will provide enough hydrogen fuel to support over 1,000 Class 8 trucks or buses per day. Class 8 is the largest category of trucking, with trucks weighing over 33,000 lbs.

Hydrogen is considered an effective use-case for technologies that need to readily dispatch high amounts of power, like in heavy-duty trucking or in industrial processes. However, the process of creating hydrogen fuel, electrolysis, requires large amounts of electricity. The marriage of solar and hydrogen electrolysis at one site helps trucking fleets achieve their emissions reduction requirements.

The two companies have entered into a land lease agreement to secure 320 acres in Kern County for the project’s development, and Black & Veatch has been consulted to perform a concept study with input from Cornerstone Engineering and Headwaters Solutions.

“Due to the unique combination of solar irradiance, California tax incentives, and proximity to large-scale offtake, Bakersfield is the ideal project to anchor our North American strategy,” said Baran.

Fusion Fuel’s partner on the project, Electus Energy, has been actively developing hydrogen mobility solutions in the Southwest U.S., cultivating relationships with prospective offtakers in the logistics and distribution sector. The partnership may mark the beginning of a “hydrogen highway” vision for the region, linking California to Texas with a chain of green hydrogen fueling stations.

“Bakersfield will be the first anchor project of our U.S. strategy, which is heavily focused on the hydrogen mobility and logistics opportunity and envisions a hydrogen highway from California to Texas. While our HEVO-Solar technology is best suited for markets with high solar irradiance, the expected introduction in 2024 of our newest product – HEVO-Chain – will make the entirety of North America part of our addressable market,” said Baran.

Sono Motors, an electric vehicle manufacturer, expanded its relationship with auto parts supplier Continental AG to equip the company’s Sion solar-powered EV model with enhanced advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS), among other items to be supplied by Continental.

The ADAS system is the first driver-assistance add-on system for Sono’s first EV model which is designed to ensure the Sion model meets newer and stricter European Union road safety regulations.

To date Continental has provided Sono with climate control systems, energy charge and thermal management powertrain systems.  Additional features under the expanded relationship include smart entry and passive access, as well as a crash sensor system.

Sono’s first Sion models are planned to be priced at $25,803, with production slated to begin in the second half of 2023.

The Sion is a consumer solar EV model whose outer shell consists of 456 PV cells to enable self sufficiency on short duration trips, or about 305 km (189.5 miles) of driving range.  The solar cells are expected to add 70 miles of additional driving range to the 54 kWh lithium phosphate battery cell which on its own provides 245 km (152 miles) of weekly driving range.

The battery system will allow for charging capacity of up to 75 kW DC fast charging or 11 kW of standard AC charging.

Sono Motors formed in January 2016 in Karben, Germany, and parent company Sonos Group went public on the Nasdaq exchange in November 2021 with $156.1 million in net proceeds.  The company has received about 20,000 reservations to date for the Sion model. The company also receives components in partnership with Valmet Automotive, Bosch, OPNV and Rhenus Group.

Canadian Solar said that its CSI Energy Solutions unit signed a 2.6 GWh battery supply agreement with UBS Asset Management’s North American Real Estate and Private Markets group.

The multi-year agreement will support the expansion of UBS’ expansion into the U.S. infrastructure market. The projects are scheduled for commercial operations in 2024-25.

Batteries under the agreement utilize CSI Energy’s SolBank utility-scale energy storage systems, in addition to full commissioning, operations and maintenance services.

CSI Energy Storage has deployed more than 2.4 GWh of lithium iron phosphate (LiFePO4) battery systems to date across the US, Canada, UK and China. As of September 30, CSI’s total pipeline was about 25 GWh.

Its systems carry a 20-year equipment warranty and performance guarantee and its modular design allows for peak load shaving, demand response and PV firming solutions in standalone and solar plus storage configurations.  Systems are installed with thermal management systems.

CSI Energy Storage has been deployed in 11.6 MWh and 14 MWh trailer sized configurations with 2.9 MVA and 3.5 MVA (AC) of respective rated power capacity.

The August passing of the Inflation Reduction Act has spurred a ramp up in North American solar and energy storage agreements to be signed. Under the landmark bill, OEMs who can fulfill  key “component” and “critical mineral” requirements will be awarded a $7,500 tax credit. In addition, a production tax credit of 10% for battery minerals and material processing and $35/kWh for cell manufacturers is included under the IRA’s advanced manufacturing production credit.