One of the latest examples of verticalization within the solar industry merger and acquisition melee is that of racking maker RBI Solar’s three-week old acquisition of custom manufacturer Solar BOS. The melding of the two companies, for which the paperwork is still settling, should make the whole better than the two parts, since customers will now be able to source everything but panels and inverters from a single source. At the same time customers can reduce the number of engineering sessions normally needed to take delivery from two separate entities.

“This should help enable us to serve customers more holistically. And we have hopes that the acquisition will result in lower costs,” ventures Kevin Ward, the marketing manager of the Cincinnati-based company. From their booth at the Solar Power International show held here in Anaheim this week, he pointed out several significant design changes to the company’s fixed-tilt offerings, including a C-shaped post and corresponding top component that reduces the amount of steel in their latest generation of structural design.

Solar BOS folks, also at the show, seem optimistic about the new venture. “We should complement one another in a streamlined way, since there is no overlap,” says Zuzana Piras, a product manager for Solar BOS. “Customers should save more time in the ordering-to-delivery process now, which can take weeks or months, depending on variables,” she says.

RBI, initially an outgrowth of the aluminum greenhouse business of Rough Brothers — the largest conservatory, garden center and greenhouse manufacturer in North America — provides solar customers with design, engineering, manufacturing and installation of ground mount, canopy, roof mount and ballasted racking systems. With engineers certified in all 50 states, the company offers nationwide installation and technical support. The company manufactures in Ohio, North Carolina, California, and Shanghai, with a capacity of 800 MW of solar mounting structures per year.

Solar BOS, with manufacturing in both Livermore and Grand Rapids, provides custom solutions for disconnect combiners and recombiners, arc fault circuit Interruption (AFCI) combiners, rapid shutdown solutions, AC combiners, wire harnesses and overmolds.

This latest RBI acquisition comes a few years after the company acquired ProtekPark Solar, a manufacturer and installer of solar carport structures. The acquisition covered brand, technology, intellectual property, manufacturing, and employees. “This acquisition will allow RBI Solar to bring their single source value chain approach to develop and implement a robust and cost effective canopy solution,” the company said at the time of the deal.

The verticalization doesn’t stop there in this story. RBI itself was acquired in 2015 for $130 million by Gibraltar Industries, a Buffalo-based manufacturer of construction materials with projected 2018 sales of $1 billion. Gibraltar’s Renewable Energy and Conservation segment, including RBI, has seven manufacturing facilities and two distribution centers in the United States. The parent as a whole has 13 manufacturing facilities and four distribution centers in the United States and Canada, and also operates in China and Japan.

Sound vaguely familiar? Compare Valmont Industries’ acquisition of tracker maker Convert Italia earlier this year or Flex’s acquisition of NEXTracker in 2015. This rogue wave is far from cresting…

A new single-axis tracker by Axsus Solar was launched at the Solar Power International trade show in Las Vegas this week, incorporating more off-the-shelf parts, less steel, and a more secure mounting system for panels, according to Yury Reznikov, VP of business development for the  Ontario-based company.

A key feature of the Axsus tracker design is that it utilizes 25% less steel than a standard torque-tube tracker design. As a result, “We should be in the bottom third of the cost universe for trackers,” says Reznikov.

Another advantage of the design is that the double-rail table support eliminates bending and micro-cracking in the modules, which is a common problem with tracker designs in which the support clamps are located very close to the torque tube, Reznikov says.

A second way the new design helps eliminate stress on the modules is that there is no cumulative torsion build-up along the length of the array, which trackers with tube designs commonly exhibit, he said. This torque elimination comes from the use of a small drive shaft that moves the gear box, which absorbs almost all of the panel and superstructure weight, Reznikov says.

The basic array design is for 180 panels with 72 cells each, per 24V motor, yielding 65kWp per row. The system can be installed with either 1,000V or 1,500V wiring.

Available with either a self-powered battery or a DC connection, the array can withstand wind speeds up to 150 mph.

The tracker is also adaptable to undulating ground, able to ramp up a 10 percent incline every 12 panels, and two workers can install the tracker without the need for any machinery.

The system comes with a 15-year warranty on structure, and 5 years on drive and controls. The company offers extentions up to 25 years.

At a solar trade show awash with modules, LG unveiled two models that are helping to raise the bar on technology designs for the industry. At the Solar Power International trade show, LG announced that its most powerful model, the NeON R 60-cell solar panel in 350W, 355W, 360W, and 365W versions based on back-contact technology, is now commercially available. This puts LG in competition with SunPower, which is the only company to date to produce back-contact cells & modules at a significant scale.

Additionally the company unveiled its 365W NeON R ACe, which sports a on-board Enphase microinverter plus WiFi communications. The NeOn R ACe will be available in early 2018, according to Ju Hwan Yun, the principal engineer for the solar system development team and solar R&D lab at LG Electronics in Korea.

The R model with a 365W configuration offers 29 percent more power than a conventional panels with a 290W rating. Another feature of the R model is what LG calls the “include the highest wind/snow load rating in the industry,” with a spec sheet citing 125 pounds per square foot for the front of the module.

With a wifi communications system the R ACe model cuts costs compared to panel makers that still string wire to carry communications signals, notes Yun. Among other features of the R ACe model is an on-board set of connector cables tucked into the sides of the portrait-oriented frame.

Both models are designed for the long haul, using N-type cells with virtually no boron content, unlike conventional p-type solar modules, so Light Induced Degradation is reduced significantly, LG notes.

“As the solar technology space continues to evolve we are proud to offer one of the highest power output modules for residential applications,” said Stephen Hahm, vice president and head of LG Electronics USA’s Energy Solutions business, in a press statement.

Fronius USA has announced the solar industry’s first inverter with integrated SunSpec Communication Signal for Rapid Shutdown over Power Line Communication, a new solar industry standard published last week. The new Fronius Symo Advanced enhances both rooftop and fire-fighter safety.

The new product will reduce both hard and soft costs, since traditional shut-off boxes and wiring will be eliminated, said Richard Baldinger, the head of marketing for the company. Communication for the device is carried over the system power lines, rather than the separate wiring used in traditional shut-off boxes.

Orders will be taken ahead of mid-2018 commercial availability, aimed at helping installers comply with the January 2019 date for required compliance with NEC 2017 rules for array shutdown, Baldinger said. The new technology will enable communication between modules, add-on boxes for inverters or optimizers, and with any component on the roof, he said.

This industry standard is a multi-vendor and multi-device communication specification for inverters, modules, and string combiners to support NEC 2014, NEC 2017, and UL 1741 module-level rapid shutdown requirements.

At the same time, Fronius is launching its new second-generation Rapid Shutdown Box that can act as a combiner box, replacing a standard junction box, keeping the number of system components low. Shipping of the Fronius Rapid Shutdown Box Duo for up to 2 strings starts immediately and the Fronius Rapid Shutdown Box Quattro for up to 4 strings starts shipping in November.

Evaluating the quality of a residential or C&I solar installation can be a tricky process, given varying practices for such tasks as grid tie connection, with diverse requirements from city to city and state to state. One organization that has sought to standardize PV installation inspections is the Cadmus Group, a Massachusetts-based consultancy.

To comprehensively review installations, Cadmus utilizes its proprietary PV Quality Evaluation and Scoring Tool (PVQuest), an online secure database application that tracks and reports on more than 850 of the most common PV installation deficiencies. The five-year-old database now contains about half of the 8,000 solar inspections the company has cumulatively conducted, says Matt Piantedosi, the manager of solar field operations for Cadmus.

One feature of the software, which can be used on an iPad, is the inclusion of a repair log for the installer, including a photo attachement that can confirm that the repair was made. Cadmus has worked with some solar manufacturers to help them focus on installation problems specific to their products, Piantedosi says.

Among clients is the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA), which has used Cadmus as a quality assurance inspector for the NY-Sun solar rebate program. As part of the program, Cadmus has inspected over 3,500 solar PV installations, ranging from small residential to large commercial scale. The inspections are required in order to receive the program rebate.

Inspection results seem shocking at times. Working for the Rhode Island Commerce Corp. to inspect renewable energy installations involved in the state’s Renewable Energy Growth program, Cadmus reported in April that it found 41% of all installations exhibited major or critical installation deficiencies. These deficiencies were expected to cause immediate or short- term risks of system failure, reduced operating capacity, or pose a safety hazard.

In the report, authored by Cadmus staff Danielle Burns, Tyler Orcut, Shawn Shaw, and Piantedosi, Cadmus found 557 installation errors across all 90 systems inspected. Many of the issues identified were classified as minor or incidental code violations, such as labeling. But most installation deficiencies, and the most severe, occurred at the PV array and point of interconnection. Issues such as grounding, labeling, and wire management appeared most frequently.

Among recommendations for improving installation quality, Cadmus underscores the need for training of local permitting and inspection authorities, installers, and utility personnel. Cadmus also called for clarification of jurisdictional or utility program technical requirements, and documentation to reduce confusion regarding interconnection requirements, in particular.

Interested in quality issues? Be sure to join pv magazine for our Quality Roundtable at the Solar Power International trade show on September 12. More information and registration can be found here.

A new Solar Quality Assurance Working Group has formed recently at SEIA as an initiative of the Institute for Building Technology and Safety (IBTS). The group is open to all members of SEIA, and held its first meeting in May. The group plans to release version 2.0 of the Photovoltaics Installation Best Practices Guide at SPI.

The Best Practices Guide was first produced by IBTS in conjunction with the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) National Renewable Energy Laboratory and other partners two years ago, with the support of a grant from DOE’s SunShot program.

The Solar Quality Assurance group already has some 80 participants, representing a wide sampling of the solar industry, from installers to EPCs, to financiers, to insurance groups, according to IBTS Program Director Richard Lawrence.

IBTS conducts residential solar installation inspections for solar financiers, for solar portfolio owners, for PACE programs, for banks and other investors and for insurance companies. The organization has done 18,000 inspections across 28 states, Guam and Puerto Rico, he said.

Most of the inspections are performed after the building permits have been signed off by local inspectors, and are conducted through the use of photos taken by the installers. IBTS also selects representative installs for on-site inspections to confirm the validity of the remote inspection universe.

The lessons learned from the IBTS inspections are offered to the installers and to the jurisdictional inspectors to help improve the quality of the installs. the V2.0 of the Best Practices Guide is also aimed at these groups to help standardize the quality assurance process nationally.

Virginia-based IBTS is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization whose mission statement declares that it is committed to helping jurisdictions meet the needs of their citizens with greater agility, efficiency, and full transparency. It partners with government at all levels to provide expertise in regulatory compliance, program and service management, and quality engineering services.

“I’ve seen a lot of wire laying on the ground — if not in water —at some of these PV power plants, all because the installer used cheap Big Box zip ties that can degrade in sunlight in eight months,” says Nick Korth, the product marketing manager for the Energies business at HellermannTyton, in Milwaukee.

“We refer to what we do as conductor protection. I’ve seen a lot of failures because of poorly supported wire, connections exposed to rain element, or friction wear through sharp frame holes,” says Korth. “Over a 10-year span at a utility scale PV plant, wire connectors might meed to be replaced three times if inferior material is used for wire support,” he adds.

“Trackers that rotate can stretch a 1,000 foot wire three inches through a rough frame opening. So with repeated thermocycling, how is that abraded insulation affected?” Korth asks.

“Cadmus Research did a study that found 25 percent of the installs they surveyed had poorly protected conductors. And up to 30 percent of those poor installs led to faults or worse,” Korth says.

His company recently unveiled a universal module clip made of polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF), that carries an industry first: a 25-year warranty. The clip is designed to fit 9mm frame holes, close to an industry standard, and thus adapt to 85 percent of all modules on the market,” Korth says. “PVDF is well known in industry for back sheets, and the material has been shown to last 25 years in UV-exposure applications, so we can provide full testing docs,” he adds

“One of the biggest growth areas we’ve seen is the focus on the levelized cost of Wattage, factoring in O&M,” Korth says. “Repair labor is more expensive than doing it right the first time. A cheap zip tie might cost one cent, but replacing it can cost $4, adding in the cost of the labor,” he says. “A lot of EPCs and utilities are coming to us to help fix cheap installations on their plants,” he adds.

The early horror days for inverters, when a 20 percent failure rate was said to be common, now seem to be safely behind the PV industry. Inverters were once responsible for 80 percent of PV system failures, when lifetimes projected by manufacturers were under five years.

Now more long-term focused owners are far more interested in the quality of Tier 1 suppliers and in the stronger warranties and warranty extensions they offer, says Laks Sampath, the U.S. and Latin America manager for Alectris, a solar asset management company.

While a few installers or EPCs may still make purchase decisions on lowest cost, those cases likely mean that they carry no or little responsibility for the warranty on the inverters they select. But PV system owners, operators and maintenance companies with a longer outlook now stick with manufacturers that stand behind their systems, says Sampath. HIs company manages dozens of central inverters and dozens of string inverters used in 200 plants under management worldwide.

“The high quality of some inverters is surprising. At one plant, an overheated transformer was gutted but the inverters shut down like they were supposed to. When we opened the cabinet, charred from the heat, it still looked brand new, like someone had just polished it,” Sampath said.

One key reason the initial high failure rate of inexpensive inverters took place was a lack of a hermetic seal against dust and moisture; the adoption of this feature is virtually industry-wide now.

The advent of microinverters and power optimizers also has reduced operating temperatures from those that string inverters must withstand, at times leading to premature failure. Better, longer warranties are another reason failure rates have declined.

Central inverters typically come with five-year limited warranties, string inverters come with warranties of about 10 years and microinverters come with 25-year warranties. But many manufacturers and EPCs offer warranty extensions for all types of inverters for the 25-year life expectancy of the PV system. “Most of the main manufacturers have re-insurance for their warranties, so third-party warranties are less important now,” Sampath said.

Inverter warranty offers also are moving downstream from manufacturers and EPCs to installers. “Inverters just do not have a 25 year lifetime, and we want the system we sell you to continue to produce for 25 years, not 10 or 15 years. So Palomar Solar goes ahead does a pre-buy of the warranty for up to 25 years, guaranteeing coverage of the cost of the second inverter that you will need to have installed during the lifetime of your solar system,” Adam Rizzo, the co-founder of the Escondido, CA-based company states on his website.

Interested in quality issues? Be sure to register for our Quality Roundtable at the Solar Power International trade show in Las Vegas on September 12.

Boviet Solar Technology unveiled three new PERC solar modules at the Intersolar North America show this week in San Francisco. The new lineup includes a 355W 72-cell module, a 290W 60-cell module, and a 300W 60-cell smart module. These new modules are among the first products to come from Boviet following its PERC upgrades at its facility in Vietnam.

The 290W 60-cell Polycrystalline diamond-cut PERC module was designed for the residential solar market, said Logan Fang, a senior market strategist for the company. Similarly, the new 300W Monocrystalline PERC Smart Module debuts with 24-hour monitoring for each module, which is designed to harvest 25 percent more energy, the company spec sheet said.

For the commercial solar market, Boviet is introducing its new 355W 72-cell Monocrystalline PERC module, that is designed to operate at up to 18.3 percent efficiency.

All of the new modules come with a 12-year product warranty and a 25-year linear output warranty. The salt and ammonia resistance of the modules has been tested by TUV Rheinland.

“PERC is clearly the future of solar modules and Boviet plans to have its factory converted to 100 percent PERC panel manufacturing,” said John Bereckis, President of Boviet Solar USA’s Module Division. “With (six) distribution points strategically located across the United States, we are better able to meet the needs of solar installers, commercial developers, and strategic partners.”

Headquartered in Silicon Valley, Boviet Solar USA is the North American arm of Boviet Solar Technology, the largest manufacturer of solar cells and panels in Vietnam. Boviet Solar is a subsidiary of China’s Powerway Group.

This morning, LG Electronics USA and Enphase Energy jointly unveiled a new AC module integrated with Enphase’s new IQ 6 microinverter at the InterSolar show in San Francisco.

LG NeON 2 ACe utilizes new cello technology, which replaces the industry standard of three busbars with 30 thin wires, which LG says enhances output and reliability. The plug-and-play connections on the microinverter help reduce installation time by half compared with an optimizer solution, according to Paul Nahi, the CEO of Enphase Energy, who demonstrated the product this morning.

This new combination is the first product coming out of the LG-Enphase cooperation that was announced last year at InterSolar. “Our alliance with Enphase has allowed us to streamline the process for consumers, appealing to a wider consumer base while still delivering the efficiency consumers expect from LG, said Stephen Hahm, vice president and head of LG Electronics USA’s Energy Solutions business.”

“Enphase was founded with the vision of making solar simple, and energy smart. Our collaboration with LG on this Enphase Energized AC module is another example of how we are executing on that vision,” Nahi said.

Installation of the integrated unit is a two-step roof installation process, lifting the microinverter out of the flat shipping position and connecting the cable, eliminating the need to install the two products separately.

A 15mm separation between the DC module and the microinverter mitigates any impact to performance and reliability by allowing sufficient air-flow for cooling, LG said in a statement.

The NeON 2 ACe with a 12-year unit warranty and the microinverter comes with a 25-year warranty. LG Electronics is committed to exceeding customer’s values and expectations beyond efficiency.

“We are now cost competitive with any optimizer solution on the market,” said Nahi. “What we said last year is that we would reduce costs by 50% by the end of this year, and we may be a few months late, but we will get there,” he said.

This article has been removed from the pv magazine USA site. There is currently no PacifiCorp RFP for solar projects, but there is one for wind projects. We regret the error.

Construction on Arizona Electric Power Cooperative’s (AEPCO) 20 MW Apache Solar Project in Cochise, AZ., is nearly complete, with September generation slated to come online while the Apache Coal unit 2 is converted from coal to natural gas.

A contract for engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) was awarded in November 2016 to Swinerton Renewable Energy (SRE). The array will include over 77,000 Jinko solar panels mounted on Array single-axis trackers.

The 20 MW Apache Solar array will serve six electricity cooperatives in the area, including Sulphur Springs Valley Electric, Graham County, Duncan Valley, Mohave and TRICO, in Arizona, as well as Anza in California. The service area includes over 400,000 individual residential, commercial, agricultural, and industrial consumers.

AEPCO also owns and maintains more than 620 miles of transmission lines and 26 substations providing wholesale electric power to the six member distribution cooperatives located in southern Arizona, western New Mexico, northwestern Arizona and California.

Before AEPCO launched its renewables program, nearly 80 percent of the energy it delivered to its cooperative members came from the coal-fired Apache Generating Station, also near Cochise.

Unemployment in the area has been a hot issue. Swinerton Renewable made many local hires for the Apache Solar Project and is keeping some of those workers on staff for solar projects elsewhere in the country.

Swinerton Renewables also built the 75 MW Red Horse II Solar and Project, which also utilized Jinko solar panels.

Correction: This article was corrected on June 13. The new version corrects an earlier story which incorrectly stated that a 2018 shut down of the Apache Coal Plant was planned.

Keystone Power Holdings LLC has established a solar investment fund, KPH Solar Farms Fund I, to finance small-scale solar projects.

The investment fund will enable Keystone to expand its solar asset ownership into several targeted U.S. markets, including Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, South Carolina and Washington, D.C.,

Keystone expects to be able to finance more than 20 MW of additional small-to-large-scale solar power projects through KPH Solar Farms Fund I. “Clean energy financing has evolved as renewable and distributed energy resources have grown to play larger roles in the United States’ energy portfolio,” said William DePhillipo, co-founder of Keystone Power.

KPH Construction Services LLC will act as project developer and will work with partners to execute the planning, engineering and design for eligible projects. The company has installed projects ranging from small arrays on schools in California to a 28.5 MW project for Duke Energy Progress in North Carolina.

”As both the electricity grid and clean energy financing continue to become increasingly decentralized, Keystone’s fund will help to ease the transition by allowing small-to-medium size projects to utilize the same funding mechanisms that have typically been used to finance large-scale solar projects,” DePhillipo says.

The fund has secured commitments from financial institutions to provide repeatable financing for solar energy projects with capacities ranging from 250 kW to 10 MW, including both rooftop and ground sites. The fund will provide 100 percent of the initial debt, equity, tax equity and construction financing. The investment fund will also be responsible for credit rating, financial analysis, administration and finance, as well as billing and collecting on power purchase agreements.

Edisun Microgrids, which launched its innovative dual-axis flat-roof commercial tracker last year, expects to deploy more than 3 MW of its rooftop tracker PV Booster in 2017, according to company CEO Bill Gross.

“To date, we have amassed a portfolio of potential customers totaling 120 MW of C&I (commercial and industrial) rooftops across the country,” he says.

The PV Booster is a small dual-axis tracker that moves a single solar panel around a circular rail, capturing maximum solar insolation on a commercial flat roof.

The support structure of the tracker is so low that a standard parapet wall will shield the unit from high winds. The compact design solves problems with weight, size, mounting and wind that have previously kept trackers off commercial roofs.

“Our path to lightning-fast growth was born in our decision to design a tracker product to meet the needs of the vastly underserved commercial and industrial rooftop market—a trillion dollar opportunity in the U.S. alone. Once we proved this concept, our team developed a business roadmap for PV Booster that meets demand for our product, with strict focus on product quality and timing of delivery,” Gross says.

“By manufacturing here in the United States, we can ensure end-users receive reliable equipment built to withstand the tests of time, and that our EPC (engineering, procurement and construction) partners can build projects on time and on budget,” he notes. “Additionally, we have chosen to develop our own projects, which allows us to foster strong, multi-project relationships with building owners able to support more than 500 kW of solar PV on their rooftops,” he says.

“Ultimately, we know that global expansion is key to our long-term success. As such, we are in active discussions with distributors and strategic partners in high-growth solar markets around the world, including Mexico, the United Kingdom, India, Turkey and other countries in South America,” he says. “Edisun is currently raising capital to support this aggressive growth plan and anticipates strong interest in our unique value proposition,” he concludes.

The bilateral North American Development Bank (NADB), a staunch financier for solar projects in the U.S. and Mexican states straddling the border, may gain a $3 billion infusion from the U.S. and Mexican governments if U.S. House Resolution 882 comes to pass.

And if the Trump administration is serious about a solar wall between the two countries, the NADB would be the entity to finance it. HR 882, introduced in February by Rep. Henry Cuellar (D-TX) would increase the bank’s capital by $3 billion, with equal shares coming from each government. Apart from the proposed infusion, the bill also would streamline and accelerate the bank’s lending processes.

Among U.S. solar projects recently funded by the program is the 10 MW SEPV Imperial Solar Project in Dixieland, CA, which came on line in December and provides energy to the Imperial Irrigation District under a power purchase agreement (PPA). Solar Electric Solutions, through its wholly-owned subsidiary SEPV Imperial LLC, developed and permitted the 2 MW SEPV Dixieland East solar project and the 3 MW SEPV Dixieland West solar project.

Among the projects under consideration for NADB loans now are three solar projects. U.S. solar developers are able to bid on these projects since the Mexican government opened renewables development to private companies a year ago. These three projects include the 317 megawatt (MW) Puerto Libertad Solar Park in Puerto Libertad, Sonora State, currently the largest solar park planned in Mexico. The 141 MW Santa Maria Solar Park in Galeana, Chihuahua State and the 122 MW Orejana Solar Park in Hermosillo, Sonora State are the other two solar projects under review.

NADB lending in the solar sector could speed up. “Mexico’s new regulatory framework for private sector involvement in energy production presents an opportunity to U.S.developers,” says Carlos Carranza, the director of project development at NADB. “Once private sector developers started bidding on energy projects in Mexico, we began to get more requests for financing,” he adds.

While the NADB attracts private sector lenders interested in the tax credits associated with solar development, it also attracts portfolio investors since the bank loans go out as far as 25 years. The bank is exempt from U.S. taxes since then-President Bill Clinton decreed in a 1994 executive order that the NADB is an international organization under the International Organization Immunities Act, which shields it from paying taxes.

The bilateral North American Development Bank (NADB) is considering a loan for the planned 339 MW Puerto Libertad PV plant in Puerto Libertad in the state of Sonora. If the loan is approved, it could close by the end of the month.

Acciona, the engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) agent for the project expects soon to begin work on the project, with an expected completion date during the second half of 2018. Acciona also has served as an EPC for PV projects in Chile, South Africa, Portugal, Australia and Spain.

The project will become part of the second wholesale electricity market auction held in Mexico in September, in which Acciona was awarded 478 GWh. Acciona also has signed a 112 MW PPA for energy from the Puerto Libertad project with a subsidiary of the Tuto Energy Group, in turn a unit of the Biofields Group, of Mexico City. Acciona and Tuto are said to hold equal equity shares in the Puerto Libertad development.

The first 227 MW phase of the project has been earmarked for Mexico’s national electricity utility, Comisión Federal de Electricidad (CFE). The PPA will provide energy to an unidentified commercial consumer.

With the addition of the Puerto Libertad project, Acciona Energía will have built nearly 1.1 GW of installed renewables capacity in Mexico, of which a little over two-thirds is wind and almost one-third is solar.

“This will be the biggest photovoltaic plant in Mexico, from which we will generate electricity to cover already-committed public and private consumption”, said Acciona Energía Mexico director Miguel Ángel Alonso, at the time of the PPA announcement in February. He added, this is “the first (contract) of a private nature signed under the new law on electric power in Mexico.”

Residential solar leader Vivint Solar has expanded availability of its solar energy systems into Colorado. “We’re pleased to bring affordable solar energy systems to Colorado as part of our ongoing expansion strategy,” said David Bywater, CEO of Vivint, in a company statement.

Vivint offers basic solar systems, as well as monitoring, home security and other smart home services. In May, Best Buy and Vivint Smart Home announced a strategic partnership to provide customers with Best Buy Smart Home powered by Vivint, a home energy management system.

Through the Best Buy network, customers can purchase a suite of smart home products from Vivint and other partners; including smart locks, lights, cameras, thermostats and other projects. Accompanying service plans include 24/7 professional monitoring with emergency response, always-on cellular connection, 30-day video storage, online and phone support, in-home service and equipment protection. The program enables customers to purchase products upfront or to utilize financing.

The Vivint smart home technology is compatible with voice assistants, such as Amazon Echo and Google Home, enabling consumers to control smart home devices with their voice. Vivint Smart Home has more than 1 million customers and has installed more than 15 million smart home devices in North American homes.

“At Vivint, our vision from the beginning has been to deliver smart home for the mass market,” said Alex Dunn , president of Vivint Smart Home, at the time of the Best Buy announcement, in May. “Together with Best Buy, we are further encouraging adoption by providing customers with a comprehensive smart home offering and a personalized retail experience.”

As part of each residential solar system sale, Vivint designs, installs and maintains the system for customers. Vivint Solar has completed over 100,000 installations throughout the United States, operating in 17 states including: Arizona; California; Colorado; Connecticut; Florida; Hawaii; Maryland; Massachusetts; New Hampshire; New Jersey; New Mexico; New York; Pennsylvania; Rhode Island; South Carolina; Texas and Utah, as well as Washington D.C.

During the past week, Akon — born Aliaune Badara Thiam in St. Louis, and raised in Senegal until he was seven — has suggested to local media that he may try to launch an IPO for his New York-based Solektra International solar company.

The company is said to have structured some $400 million worth of solar deals to date. His office did not respond to a request for additional information.

Akon launched the Akon Lighting Africa initiative in February 2014, and today, 200,000 small solar projects later, Solektra is active in 14 African countries including: Mali; Niger; Senegal; Guinea; Burkina Faso; Sierra Leone; Benin; Guinea Equatorial; Gabon; Republic of Congo; Namibia; Madagascar; Kenya and Nigeria.

Akon Lighting Africa works with local banks and governments to develop public-private partnerships (PPPs) to finance solar projects, for which panels are supplied by Chinese companies. Among Solektra’s Chinese partners are partnerships with Nanjing-based power equipment makers Sumec Group and Nari Group, press reports say.

Akon also readily partners with charities and other funding sources. In Sierra Leone, for example, he has partnered with the Lanyi Foundation and The Healey Foundation.

Solektra offers a range of solar lighting, including the Free Light Sol-SL01A, designed to replace traditional oil lamps in rural off-grid areas that have little or no access to electricity. The product comprises a photovoltaic panel, a lithium battery and LED lighting.

Apart from providing solar lighting and other products, Akon is training workers in solar technology at a school he established in March, in Bamako, Mali. Solektra’s African headquarters also are located in there. France’s Sunna Design is providing some solar lighting products to Solektra, and also is collaborating on a factory in Mali.

Solektra is considering pilot projects in Brazil and India, and has a goal of building a U.S. solar farm, as well.

These four states are among the nation’s leaders for PV adoption. According to GTM Research and Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA), Massachusetts was the eighth-largest PV market in 2016. Minnesota was the 12th-largest market in the nation, New York 13th, and Connecticut 21st.

GameChange will supply its MaxSpan Pile Driven Systems, which features racking that locks up and does not shake prior to module installation, a company statement said. “Other vendors rely on the module frames to lock up the racking which ultimately leads to extra stress on the modules themselves,” said Andrew Worden, CEO of the company. “Customers are attracted by the sturdy construction of the GameChange MaxSpan Pile Driven Systems. GameChange’s superior quality has led to our historical track record of zero structural field failures, which is unique in the industry,” he added.

In one time study, GameChange found that using its pile driven system, six percent of the total installation time was required for the pilings. Riveted racking consumed 40 percent of the total installation time, and panel attachment accounted for most of the remaining time. The study revealed that a 20-person installation team could erect over 1.7 MW of solar in a week’s time.

GameChange recently announced that controlled an estimated 20 percent U.S. market share for fixed-tilt ground mount racking in 2016, a five percent market share for flat roof commercial racking, and that the company has jointed the of Top 10 single axis trackers vendors during 2016. The statistics were compiled by a market analyst that GameChange could not mention by name. GameChange has over 1.4 GW of PV installed, including 2016 sales of 88 MW of trackers, Worden said.

One key bill signed by Gov. Sandoval is Senate Bill 145, which establishes the Solar Energy Systems Incentive Program that will encourage the installation of energy storage systems. This measure also creates a state policy to expand and accelerate the use of electric vehicles (EVs) and support the EV infrastructure which falls in line with the Governor’s goal to have all of Nevada’s highways, no matter how remote, accessible to all EV drivers and ensure completion of the first complete EV highway system in the nation.

Among other provisions of SB145, it requires the Public Utilities Commission (PUC) beginning on January 1 and ending in December 2023, to authorize the payment of incentives of up to $2 million per year for the installation of solar energy systems and distributed generation systems at locations that benefit low-income customers.

The law also now requires that the Nevada Department of Transportation annually evaluate and publish a report analyzing the need for additional publicly available  hydrogen-fueling stations over the next three years. Similarly, the bill appropriates $2 million to provide incentives for the construction of publicly available hydrogen-fueling stations.

Other features of the law include the creation of a Legislative Committee on Energy, and directs it to conduct an interim study analyzing the development of energy, viability, expansion and implementation of energy efficiency programs.

And the bill also directs the new committee to analyze the viability of establishing green banks and similar entities to help finance the use and harnessing of clean energy projects in this State, for commercial and residential properties.

The governor also signed Senate Bill 204, which was recommended by the Governor’s New Energy Industry Task Force and requires the PUC to determine if it is in the public interest for utilities to purchase energy storage. The act becomes effective on July 1, 2017 and the PUC must make its determination by October 1, 2018.

The project is one phase of the Austin Energy grant from the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Sustainable and Holistic Integration of Energy Storage and Solar Photovoltaics (SHINES) program. The program’ goal is to reduce the cost of electricity from combined solar and storage projects to below $0.14/kilowatt hour.

DOE says that SHINES is part of the Energy Department’s Grid Modernization Initiative, which aims to accelerate the strategic modernization of the U.S. electric power grid and solve the challenges of integrating conventional and renewable sources, while ensuring a resilient energy system combining energy storage with central and distributed generation.

“Austin is a hub of sustainability and we are thrilled to be working with Austin Energy on this project,” said John Carrington, CEO of Stem. “We think all of Texas will be watching to see how aggregated energy storage can cost-effectively deliver multiple values to customers, utilities, and grid operators alike.”

Stem’s software-driven energy storage will reduce customer energy costs by reducing their peak demand and providing them with real-time energy management and visualization tools. Where a business has on-site PV systems, Stem’s software and analytics tools will automatically manage those customers’ use of grid-supplied electricity against their solar production.

Stem’s intelligent, cloud-based control platform incorporates weather forecasts, historical and real-time usage data to predict when electric use will peak at a given site. Reducing commercial peak demand helps improve local grid stability and distribution energy planning.

“The Austin SHINES project is another example of Austin Energy’s commitment to using innovative technology to increase reliability and customer value. This project will help Austin Energy learn more about the potential benefits of integrated distributed energy resources for broader deployment in the future, so we can maximize the value of solar and storage integration for our customers,” said Jackie Sargent, Austin Energy General Manager.

For all customers in the network, Stem’s proprietary software will rapidly respond to spikes in electricity use, drawing on stored power to automatically reduce demand charge costs without requiring operational changes or manual input from the host.

Over the longer-term, this model will illustrate how aggregated, customer-sited energy storage systems can help Austin Energy reduce costs associated with Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) coincident peaks, defer investment in substation upgrades, and provide clean, reliable power to its customers.

To produce the cell, a small mono boule was grown and wafered at Fraunhofer CSP’s lab for crystallization technology in Germany, and then converted into cells by a manufacturing partner that could not be named at this time, Silicor says.

While Trina Solar set a 23% efficiency record for a similar p-type mono PERC (Passivated Emitter Rear Cell) cell in December, that effort utilized silicon produced through the industry-standard Siemens process, which costs “substantially more” than the Silicor method, a Silicor spokesperson said.

“Once we begin production, the expected all-in cost for our silicon,  is equal to or less than $11 per kilogram, compared to the industry averages – based on statistics from a prominent industry analyst – of $18/kg in 2017 and a projected $15/kg in 2021,” the company said. “Silicor is taking steps to lower the capital expenditure associated with our plant which will allow us to decrease costs as well as planning various technology improvements that will bring down costs even further,” it added.

The Silicor production method is also more environmentally friendly, since their process does not utilize volatile trichlorosilane gas, unlike the Siemens process, it added.

Similarly, the company suggests that while traditional solar silicon production can require as much as 120 kWh to produce one kilogram of silicon, Silicor’s process will produce the same quantity with as little as 20 kWh per kilogram. This helps reduce cost and provides a greener process, they note.

Silicor is now attempting to ramp up production of its manufacturing process. In July 2014, Silicor announced the selection of a location in Iceland for its next generation manufacturing facility, with a nameplate capacity of 16,000 metric tons per year. Silicor expects to begin production at this facility in 2018, with full production in 2019, a company statement notes.

The Nevada Senate is now considering AB 405, including the issue of net metering, following the passage of the bill in the Assembly last week. However, NV Energy is pushing back, arguing against the principle of retail-rate net metering.

“Assembly Bill 405 requires NV Energy to purchase excess energy from private solar generation systems at legislatively mandated pricing, not a price set by a market,” the utility stated in a presentation to the Senate.

“The total cost obligation created by existing private solar generation coupled with the proposed private solar generation additions in Assembly Bill 405…is $63.3 million annually or approximately $1.3 billion over the minimum 20 year term specified in the bill,” NV Energy estimated.

The utility complained that while it is now contracting for solar energy at a cost as low as $31 per megawatt, “NV Energy currently gives a credit to grandfathered residential customers of over $110 per megawatt hour for energy from a private generation system in southern Nevada.”

NV Energy also complained that “Customers with private solar generation are allowed to receive electric services at below cost rates…For example, a customer with private solar generation uses the electric grid as a place to deliver the excess energy produced by their solar panels and also gets to rely on the electric grid to back up the private solar generation whenever they do not have enough energy being produced.”

NV Energy currently has 479 MW of solar generation in development in Nevada, which helps it meet the state’s 2015-2019 Renewable Portfolio Standard (RPS) requirement of 20%. In its 2016 RPS Annual Report, NV Energy said that its northern Nevada network had reached a 26.6% renewable energy generation, while its southern Nevada network achieved a 22.2% share of renewable energy in its mix.

Andrew Worden, CEO of GameChange Solar, told pv magazine, “We are not at liberty to mention the name of the two leading independent analysts who made the comparisons, but the information is available for purchase from them.” He noted that one of the proprietary reports went on sale in April, and that the other is now in draft form.

“One of the two analysts gave us an 18% share for fixed-tilt and the other gave us a 21% share, so we averaged it at 20%,” Worden said. The company has provided over 1.4 GW of fixed-tilt and tracking arrays combined.

While the company sold 88 MW of trackers last year, it expects to sell 400 MW this year, he predicted.

“Our design gets 5% more energy than our competitors from the same sized array field, and our solution provides a 20% higher return on equity,” he added. A key reason for the five percent energy gain is the irregular footprint and uneven topography of most solar sites now available on the market, Worden noted. “It’s not like it used to be with wide-open rectangles,” he said.

GameChange will attempt to demonstrate these economics at an enclosed “Genius Booth” at the Intersolar North America show in San Francisco in July. The booth will be enclosed to “slow down the knock-off rate,” Worden said. He calculates that in terms of pricing, GameChange is now on par with Chinese suppliers and the few lowest-cost European providers.

By eliminating array-gaps on the tracker at all pile mounting locations, the SF7 achieves complete tracker module fill that enables greater yield. And by reducing parts count and installation labor, SF7 also achieves a lower installed first-cost, the company says. “With SF7, our customers advantage is increased when they must compete in low and falling PPA bid circumstances,” said Raúl Morales, CEO of Soltec.

Other features of the SF7 include: fewest piles-per-MW, greatest installation tolerances on steep-slope and irregular land, and the greater site-fill options of a short tracker that mounts twice the modules per independent-row tracker length, the company adds. The design can mount slopes of up to 17 percent.

“SF7 incorporates DC Harness and String Runner installation innovations that combine to better manage PV array wiring with less cabling material and less installation labor,” said José María Lozano, Soltec’s Global Engineering Director. “SF7 is self-powered, and provides tracker level near field communications; together reducing costs of material, installation, operation, and maintenance,” he adds.

Soltec has manufacturing facilities in Spain, Brazil, and China, as well as offices in Denmark, Chile, India, Israel, Italy, Mexico, Peru, and the United States. Earlier this month the company reported its first Mid-East sale, a 16.5 MW PV plant in Jordan. The company gained UL 1741 certification for its PV Series Power Supply used for self-powered trackers in April.

The project will deploy Tesla Energy’s Powerpack 2 lithium-ion battery system, which will be located at various large-load commercial, industrial and government host sites in Los Angeles and Orange counties. The fleet of storage banks will be used for utility grid services including flexible and reserve capacity, solar integration and voltage management in addition to retail energy services such as demand management, back up generation and enhanced power quality.

SCE, which is California’s second largest utility, will purchase capacity from the Macquarie-owned fleet of behind-the-meter, battery-based energy storage systems under 10-year capacity contracts to provide load reduction services as part of SCE’s plan to modernize the grid by 2022.

The financing, led by CIT, backs the storage system portfolio that Macquarie Capital acquired from Advanced Microgrid Solutions (AMS) in August 2016. Since the acquisition, Macquarie and AMS have been jointly developing and constructing the portfolio, which is expected to come online in phases over the next 12-24 months. AMS, which led the development of the portfolio, will serve as the asset manager of the projects.

“Macquarie Capital is proud to have closed this first-of-its-kind financing for these critical battery storage infrastructure assets in Southern California,” said Michael Silverton, head of Macquarie Capital for the U.S. and Latin America.

“CIT is pleased to achieve this landmark project finance transaction, further demonstrating our commitment to supporting innovation and sustainable solutions in the energy sector,” said Mike Lorusso, group head and managing director of CIT’s Energy Finance business.

“Macquarie is financing a revolution in the energy industry,” said Susan Kennedy, CEO of AMS. “The era of energy storage has begun.”

The projects will be built by Bouygues Construction Australia with expected completion by the end of the year.

“Array Technologies is delighted to bring the world’s most reliable and innovative solar tracker to Australia – a country with abundant solar resources that is ideal for tracking systems,” said Ron Corio, CEO of Array Technologies. “The elimination of failure-prone components like sensors and batteries, coupled with our drive to continually streamline installation costs, makes our DuraTrack HZ v3 system the best value for solar energy stakeholders in Australia.’’

‘‘The Australian market has already shown a strong interest in Array’s lowest cost of ownership, zero scheduled maintenance over the 30-year product life, and high reliability,’’ said Alan Brown, newly appointed sales director and general manager in Australia. ‘‘With a proven track record and measured uptime of 99.996 percent, Array Technologies continues to be the lowest-risk option with the highest efficiency. We welcome the opportunity to engage and deliver world class projects to the Australian market.’’

Australia’s utility-scale solar pipeline is booming, with expected growth of four gigawatts over the next five years alone. Solar energy is growing rapidly in the country as capital investment declines – making Australia a particularly appealing market for yield-boosting technologies like trackers.

Array Technologies has expanded from its manufacturing base in the United States to become a global provider of time-proven tracking solutions – with six gigawatts, 375 projects, and over 12,000 miles of trackers installed and 12,000 gigawatt years of reliable operation in place today. The company recently was named second largest among global tracker suppliers in 2016 by IHS Markit.

Flex, the parent company of NEXTracker, noted in its 2016 annual report dated March 31, that “Gross margins improved 70 basis points in fiscal year 2016 compared to that of fiscal year 2015 due to proportionate increased share of our total revenue attributable to our HRS and IEI segments coupled with their increased profitability primarily driven by our acquisitions of Mirror Controls International and NEXTracker Inc.”

In the United States — the largest market for PV tracker products globally — Soltec, GameChange Solar, and Sunlink were the winners in terms of growth in the market outside of the big two (NEXTracker and Array Technologies).

Convert Italia —ranked fourth — and Arctech — ranked fifth — have risen into the top five, finding success in emerging tracker markets outside of the United States in Latin America, the EMEA region, and India.

Vertically integrated suppliers First Solar —ranked third — and SunPower — ranked sixth — notably lost market share in 2016. This has coincided with First Solar’s announcement to downsize its EPC business and to exit the structures market in 2016.

Soltec ranked seventh, Clavijo ranked eighth, Sun Action ranked ninth, and GameChange ranked tenth globally in the comparison.

Of the top 10 suppliers, distributed systems accounted for two thirds of shipped products, while one third was accounted for by centralized solutions, with NEXTracker and Array Technologies leading each product category respectively.

Leading tracker suppliers found success by continuing to dominate in the US market, but with the market slowing down in 2017, developing international markets for trackers will be key for maintaining growth, along with developing niche solutions for small-scale applications and sites with less than ideal land types (uneven terrain, obstructions, etc.).

For international growth, look to Latin American markets such as Brazil and Mexico, EMEA markets such as Turkey and Jordan, and Asian markets such as India and Australia.

The Los Angeles Department of Water and Power (LADWP) has ended its much-contested use of coal at the Navajo Generating Station four years early since the state has met its 25% renewable energy portfolio goal early. LADWP’s renewable energy level has increased to 25% from just 6% 10 years ago.

Reiko Kerr, LADWP senior assistant general manager of power system engineering, planning, and technical studies, says. “Our Nevada projects have allowed us to stop receiving coal power from the Navajo Generating Station in 2016—four years ahead of the required deadline.”

The substitution of coal was possible due to the completion of the 250-megawatt (MW) Moapa Southern Paiute Solar Project and several other new large-scale solar facilities that began delivering clean power to Los Angeles by the end of 2016.

Along with the Moapa facility, these include three large solar plants in the Mojave Desert. In 2015, LADWP also began receiving its share of solar power—210 MW—from Copper Mountain 3 Solar Project near Boulder City, Nev., bringing the total amount of solar power coming to Los Angeles generated from outside the city to 870 MW.

Locally, over 192 MW of solar energy is generated by customer-owned solar rooftop or ground-mounted projects, while about 20 MW of local solar comes to the LA power grid via the Feed-in Tariff Program, through which LADWP purchases power produced by privately owned small-scale projects within the city.%The utility is also on track to meet the next milestones of 33% of renewable energy sales by 2020, 55% by 2030 and 65% or more by 2036, and is studying the feasibility of going beyond that.  “We are looking at what it would take in terms of resources, capability and costs to achieve 100 percent clean energy in the future,” LADWP General Manager David H. Wright said.

Mayor Eric Garcetti said, “There is much more work to do, and we will never stop working until we reach all of the ambitious renewable energy and emission reduction goals outlined in my administration’s Sustainable City pLAn.”

Qantum is a hardware-agnostic energy management platform based on SaaS, that gathers data from any wind or solar plant monitoring system, such as databases, SCADA or data acquisition systems, including data from trackers, hybrid plants or storage facilities. The software then collects and transforms the data into comprehensive, next-stage analytics, enabling SOLV to rapidly identify performance issues.

“Our solution helps clients deliver best-in-class O&M services for solar PV plants of any size, from small rooftop installations to massive utility-scale projects, such as the 155 MWp Comanche Project which generates an average of 5,000 data points, including the Qantum-based calculation of 1,800 formula-based KPIs (key performance indicators). Thanks to Qantum’s unmatched intelligence capabilities, SOLV can visualize, understand, streamline and maximize global operational performance using a simple web browser,” explained Franck Le Breton, the CEO of QOS Energy.

The cloud-based suite features a complete set of customizable charts, operating dashboards KPIs and alerts helping users to gain a deeper understanding of the asset’s performance at a glance, and to identify root causes of underperformance. Additional KPIs and technical indicators have also been created specifically for any trackers installed onsite.

The platform offers a fully integrated maintenance management system to help reduce downtime by streamlining maintenance workflows for large and complex renewable energy portfolios. In addition, SOLV benefits from a reporting feature included in the SaaS solution to customize and automate its reporting processes.

“We operate and maintain on behalf of our clients a broad and diverse PV portfolio that requires industry-leading plant management skills. The solution provided by QOS Energy can integrate any type of data, which is a powerful and truly unique capability in the market. We can now track asset performance with greater efficiency, and, in turn provide optimum value to our clients. The implementation phase has been very smooth and we were impressed with the level of service provided by QOS Energy,” concluded Adam Snyder, the product manager of SOLV.

SOLV currently manages 3.25 GW of PV assets and is ranked #2 among O&M vendors globally in United States.

QOS Energy software is used on over 4,000 facilities worldwide, including 3.5 GW of renewable power.

SMA America announced its Sunny Boy-US series is the first residential inverter to achieve Underwriters’ Laboratories (UL) 1741 SA (Supplement A) listing, which has been mandated by California and Hawaii for compliance in September 2017. Most if not all states are expected to follow suit, adopting these so-called smart-grid requirements for inverters.

Under the new rule, UL specifies test methods for grid support that allow distributed-generation (DG) devices to remain online and adapt to grid instability by adapting their output and overall behavior to stabilize the grid during abnormal operation rather than simply disconnecting.

California has announced that inverters installed in the state will be required to comply with the Rule 21 grid-interconnection requirements within one year of publication of the UL 1741 SA. Other states are actively considering adopting similar installation requirements, especially in areas with high levels of DG and solar penetration. Rule 21 is the inverter-related revision to the  California Electric Tariff Rule 21 made by the California Public Utility Commission (CPUC).

Rule 21 is a Source Requirement Document (SRD) to be used with the UL 1741 SA. SRDs set specific parameter settings to be used with the test methods of the UL 1741 SA. Other SRDs may also be used with the UL 1741 SA as other markets look to build smart-grid functionality into the modernization of their electrical power system,  UL notes.

“We are pleased to see SMA making a continued, concerted effort to manufacture inverters that will help meet the needs of the modern utility grid,” said Jeff Smidt, vice president and general manager, UL Energy and Power Technologies division. “The certified models of the Sunny Boy-US line of residential inverters meet the safety requirements and comply with the specifications of UL 1741 SA.”

The move is part of the company plan to offer its high efficiency Power XT modules to installers on a local and regional basis, rather than by way of a few national distributors, says company CEO Suvi Sharma. “Three years ago, the large national installers detained 70 percent of the U.S. residential market. Today they hold only 30 percent, as ownership eclipses leasing and PPAs,” he says.

Solaria panels can produce 20 percent more power than conventional panels because the company cuts cells into strips and tiles them without soldering to eliminate the dead space on a traditional panel. “While we may charge 10 percent more than standard panel makers, because our panels require less BOS expense for both hard and soft costs, both the installers and the system owners gain substantially,” Sharma says.

“Installer margins are very thin, but we have heard that they can double their profit by using our panels in place of standard panels,” Sharma adds. Solaria introduced the 400 Wp Power XT panels in mid-2016, panels, and has ramped up production since then.

Solaria also manufactures PV cell strips for use in BIPV products, including glass and curtain walls. The company is supplying Asahi with these products in Asia, and supplying Pilkington with the PV components in Europe. In the U.S., Solaria is working with glass and vinyl BIPV fabricators.

Solaria’s PowerSpandrel-350 BIPV product achieves higher energy efficiency than a standard PV panel, in part because the window glass helps capture heat and light absorption that add a 15 percent bump to overall performance for the building functions.

To ensure that PV production is optimal, the equation of soiling vs. cleaning frequency and costs needs to be managed closely. The new cost-effective robotic solution avoids acquisition and transportation of expensive distilled water in remote locations, and performs at a cleaning rate up to 5 MWp cleaned in eight hours by two operators.

The robot cleans panels in the stow position, operating under contained battery power that lasts for four hours per battery, with two batteries configured. The batteries are 24Vcc 20Ah lithium iron phosphate technology, with a two hour charge time and a 2,000 cycle life time.

The robot’s caterpillar drive ensures there are no specific loads on the panel surface and that there is no impact on panel efficiency or surface integrity. The unit will work at temperatures up to 50 degrees Celsius.

The robot is designed to clean modules with frames, glass-glass modules, and thin film modules. The modules have been tested by outside agencies for IV curve, electroluminescent test, and thermal imaging.

At the same time, Exosun unveiled Discover ExoDesigner, a free AutoCAD add-on application to easily design PV plant and Exosun’s cleaning robot to reduce soft costs around the project and increase plant performance.

ExoDesigner enables engineering teams to design the layout of PV plants harvesting the best from tracker technology. This tool is incorporated into the existing AutoCAD, enabling users to continue working on their existing plant layouts or create new ones.

Construction of the project is at a 75 completion point, with Isolux providing the engineering, procurement and construction of the plant. Lead funding for the Kayenta project will come from tax credits and loans from the Cooperative Finance Corporation. Western Area Power Administration, which owns the adjacent substation, and the National Rural Utilities Cooperative Finance Corp., helped set up financing. The project was also supported the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation.

The Kayenta Solar Project, located on the Navajo Nation Reservation, will cover approximately 210 acres and consist of 117,952 photovoltaic panels mounted on single axis trackers, and controlled by 10 power blocks. NTUA, which oversees the 27,000 square miles reservation, will sell energy from the Kayenta project to Arizona utility SRP.

At the time the plant was approved last year, Navajo Tribal Utility Authority general manager Walter Haase said, “As the primary utility on Navajo, it was important NTUA take the lead on establishing a large-scale renewable project on the Navajo Nation.” Hasse said. “Although (jobs created by the project) will not completely supplement job losses from coal mine layoffs or reduction in operations at the local coal power plants, it is an important next step in the development of a green economy for the Navajo Nation.”

Isolux Corsan has approximately 766 MW of solar capacity has been installed or is currently under construction in Spain, Italy, UK, South Africa, Peru, Honduras, Japan and the U.S. The first Isolux solar plant in the U.S. was a 25 MW-DC solar plant in El Centro, CA.

CCSA, which was organized just one year ago, claims some credit for the implementation of a new program in Maryland — which opens in April and enables nearly 250 MW of community solar development — as well as new programs in Hawaii and Rhode Island. The group is now working with local advocates and policymakers to establish the rules for new programs that were approved in Illinois and Oregon in 2016.

State legislation to create new community solar programs currently is being considered in at least seven states, including Nevada, Washington, and Maine, with votes anticipated on those programs by summer 2017.

CCSA also works with regulators to improve market structures in existing markets, including crucial financial mechanisms in Massachusetts and New York that will enable development of hundreds more MW in each state, bringing community solar to tens of thousands of new customers over the next few years.

A recent Greentech Media study forecast that 410 MW of community solar will be installed in 2017 and community solar will be a 500 MW annual market by 2019.

“Community solar is on the rise across the country,” affirmed CCSA Executive Director Jeff Cramer. “We’re excited to see so much enthusiasm for community solar from so many leading companies and organizations, and encouraged by the growing support for effective policies that will support its adoption nationwide. In the last year alone we have seen total installed capacity of community solar nearly double, and significant progress made to open new markets, including Maryland, New York, Hawaii and others in the coming year.”

The CCSA has published the industry’s first Policy Decision Matrix to assist policymakers in developing new community solar programs, and partnered with the Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA) to develop a Residential Consumer Guide to Community Solar.

“The continued growth of community solar is a testament to the strong consumer demand for local, affordable, clean energy options and the direct engagement of our members in promoting the policies necessary for successful development,” declared CCSA Board Chair Hannah Masterjohn of Clean Energy Collective. “We are gaining visible momentum and making important progress toward our goal of ensuring access to solar for all. We’re enthusiastic about building upon these successes as we start year two.”

There are more than 40,000 PST-2AL units in use to date, primarily in the Alamo Solar Projects in Texas. With the smaller design, Sun Action enters the growing residential space “utilizing its existing manufacturing capabilities and partnerships,” the company says.

The residential and commercial markets for trackers have begun to open over the past few years, with dual axis solutions leading the way given the higher energy yield than single axis. Apart from the vast residential demand for PV, commercial demand is expected to increase soon as new technology like that from Edisun Microgrid, designed for flat roofs, is adopted.

Dual-axis trackers also have proven to be more suitable for specialty markets like brown fields, municipal disposal sites, and other site-challenged locations. Microgrids, high security sites — like law enforcement, fire departments and hospitals — and other academic, commercial or corporate campuses are turning to dual axis trackers for maximum yield design.

“We are incredibly excited to enter a new space with our revolutionary product line that has time and time again proven its worth in the solar tracking industry. Our Dual Axis Trackers offer up to 45 percent greater production from traditionally used methods in residential solar, and our dealers are sharing our enthusiasm for the potential of our product in their market,” says Ron Hardin, the company director of dealer support.

Sun Action Trackers is a full line manufacturer of single and dual axis solar tracking and racking systems. With headquarters in San Antonio, the company’s tracker solution has more deployments than any model in North America at over 40,000, the company claims.

EnSync, which develops DER systems and internet of energy (IOE) control platforms for the utility, commercial, industrial and multi-tenant building markets, will gain depth in DC system engineering design, consulting and policy for microgrid solutions. DCfusion also will bring expertise in other vertical market applications including data centers, cable and telecom, off-grid communities, critical infrastructure resiliency, and big box architecture.

EnSync currently detains proprietary DC power control hardware, energy management software, and energy storage technologies so that it can deliver fully integrated systems providing for efficient design, procurement, commissioning, and operations.

“EnSync Energy has extensive experience in DER system design and integration, and DCfusion’s ability to aggressively drive differentiated capabilities to target markets furthers EnSync Energy’s value chain expertise, and opens up a consulting services revenue stream for the company,” said Brad Hansen, President and CEO of EnSync Energy Systems.

DCfusion will operate as a subsidiary of EnSync, Inc., similar to its Holu Energy subsidiary, and the acquisition is expected to be accretive to EnSync Energy within the calendar year.

EnSync Energy’s IOE control platform adapts to generation and load variables, as well as changes in utility prices and programs, to help customers balance behind-the-meter options against grid enhancement services. EnSync also provides power purchase agreements (PPAs).

EnSync Energy is a global corporation, with joint venture Meineng Energy in AnHui, China, and energy project development subsidiary Holu Energy LLC in Hawaii.

The principles of DCfusion are actively involved in influencing worldwide standards and codes, are frequent speakers at industry events, and hold chair and committee positions within numerous organizations, including the EMerge Alliance, NFPA/NEC, INTELEC, SCTE, IEEE and IEC.

Derick Botha, the vice president of business development at GameChange Solar, says: “This system presented challenges such as deep irrigation ditches which needed to be navigated. The flexibility of the GameChange Max-Span Plus system to utilize non standard large profile foundations enabled these ditches to be spanned without any issue. We are excited to be part of this meaningful project and look forward to a rapid installation process. Our logistics team will support the project by scheduling deliveries to multiple drop ship points to help the customer with tight staging space requirements.”

The company’s Max-Span system requires as few supports as 190 per MW, and can navigate up to 15 degree terrain slopes. The system also withstands 150 mph wind and 90 psf snow loads.

The Mid-Atlantic is particularly well-suited for solar development, according to a study by Clean Power Research for the Mid‐Atlantic Solar Energy Industries Association (MSEIA). The researchers found that the total value of solar ranges from $256 per MWh to $318 per MWh, after considering both economic and social benefits of the development. Of the total value, the highest value components are the Market Price Reduction (averaging $55 per MWh) and the Economic Development Value (averaging $44 per MWh), Clean Power found.

The following chart details the component values of new solar for seven Mid-Atlantic cities.

The tie-up is another example of the global verticalization of the PV tracker industry, especially between tracker companies and their manufacturing partners. NEXT and Sun Action are earlier examples of the trend, which is characterized by reduced costs and the accelerated globalization of the tracker technology.

“The merger with MFV Solar is a strategic step that strengthens our companies’ international standing in the structures and solar trackers sector. Furthermore, with the support of Q-Growth, we are taking a major step towards making the most advanced solar tracking technology available to developers, EPC contractors and installers worldwide,” notes Miguel Clavijo, CEO of Grupo Clavijo.

The staff forming NCLAVE have more than 10 years of experience, during which over 2 GW of PV have been installed in 40 countries; the new venture is scheduled to install 600 MW over the coming months, the companies say.

NCLAVE has offices and production centers on all five continents, led by Grupo Clavijo, with headquarters in Viana, Navarra Province. Other offices are located in Chile, the US, Brazil and Australia. Metal fabricator for the PV industry, MFV Solar, with headquarters in Liria, Valencia Province, has a long supply history in various countries in Europe, Latin America and Asia.

Q-Growth Fund is an investment vehicle of Qualitas Equity Partners, a fund manager in the Spanish private equity industry, including the photovoltaic sector. “Photovoltaic solar energy has reached the point where it can compete with conventional energy sources. This means that there will be strong global growth in the sector in the coming years. Our goal is to help create a global leader that is able to harness the growth opportunities existing in the sector,” remarks Borja Oyarzabal, a partner at Q-Growth.

In 2007, KEA set a goal to produce 95 percent of Kodiak’s energy from renewable sources by 2020, to reduce reliance on diesel fuel and lower the cost of generation to customers. Today, the island has achieved that goal through a combination of hydroelectric and wind energy, KEA officials say. The new batteries will permit greater harvesting of wind potential.

This switch to lithium ion is reflective of the global battery market, in which lithium ion now represents 37 percent of all use, compared with lead acid representing 32 percent of the market. Market analysts CRU reckon that lithium ion demand will grow up to 20 percent per year over the next five years, while lead acid will grow at a single digit rate.

Lithium ion technology is used for the vast majority of stationary rechargeable applications like renewable energy storage. Lithium ion batteries will provide roughly three times — or about 150 kWh/kg— the run time of lead acid batteries, and will provide about four times the specific power — about 400 W/kg — as lead acid. As a result, lithium ion is expected to supply 80 percent of the new battery demand globally over the next five years, CRU reports.

Darron Scott, the CEO of Kodiak Electric Association (KEA), commented, “Our main goal has always been to bring more renewables to the island and greatly reduce the cost and environmental impacts of using diesel fuel. We realized early on that battery storage is the best solution to help us achieve these goals, and that Younicos is a company with the right technology and expertise – as well as a passion for clean and affordable energy.”

The Power+ Solution can be applied per module or selectively to yield-challenged modules, subject to factors like shading. This selective use of MLPE optimization is less expensive than the addition of a microinverter or optimizer to every panel, yet provides analysis and performance programming where it is most needed.

“Every solar PV project has unique challenges and objectives, and a one-size-fits-all approach does not meet the needs of today’s solar landscape,” said Sven Schreiber, executive vice president of the Residential business unit at SMA. “With the Power+ Solution, integrators can choose to apply the technology in a way that optimizes ROI for their individual business model.”

Orders are being taken for the TS4 platform, which offers various levels of plug-and-play functionality. The TS4 is available as a factory integrated component through leading module suppliers. It is also available as an add-on, retrofit option through SMA. Benefits of the TS4 line include module-level monitoring, shutdown code compliance, shade mitigation and increased string lengths.

Selectively deploying TS4-R can save up to 90 minutes of installation time per residential system while realizing greater energy production and roof usage, and provide a higher ROI, notes SMA. Selective deployment is also a more simple solution for future service and O&M.

installers and distributors also may realize additional cost savings by reducing the total number of products they carry. Now integrators can carry one line of inverters for MLPE and non-MLPE applications, which reduces warehouse space while also improving flexibility when installation requirements change at the last minute.

Boris Gragera, CEO of NEST iON said, “The energy storage ecosystem at Eastman Business Park has what we need for this next important phase of our expansion. Home of world-class coating capabilities, the BEST Test & Commercialization Center, and the recently announced Kodak Pilot Cell Assembly Facility, EBP is rapidly becoming a hub for the development of critical next generation battery and energy storage technologies. We are thankful for the support of Empire State Development in establishing a base in Rochester.”

In developing new U.S. lithium ion battery capacity, NEST iON is still early in what is expected to be a massive capacity build up over the next few years. While nearly 90 percent of the global lithium ion battery manufacturing capacity of 41.57 GWh is in Asia, the rapidly growing capacity in the U.S. is oriented toward electric vehicles.

Tesla’s new $1 billion, 35GWh factory in Nevada is expected — with partner Panasonic’s help — to drive down the cost of EV batteries from some $400/kWh now to less than half that cost over the mid-term. Far more capacity is on the horizon. Sonnen is expanding its U.S. battery capabilities with a new North American Innovation Center in Atlanta.

Industrial Info Resources reported in February that it is tracking seven new U.S. lithium-ion battery projects totaling $5.35 billion. NREL suggested in April 2016 that 20 GW of new lithium ion battery projects were being planned globally.

All this capacity is targeting the booming global lithium ion market, which Transparency Market Research estimates will grow from $30 billion in 2015 to $77 billion by 2024, with a CAGR of nearly 12 percent per year.

Dan Nordloh, executive vice president of EnSync Energy Systems said, “This distributed energy resource system is primarily designed to store excess solar energy generated during the day, and shift it for use in the evening hours when the overall demand for electricity peaks. The system will serve office loads, as well as what is known as a ‘head-end’ facility, which is a critical operating facility that takes TV signals from satellites, processes them into cable quality and distributes them throughout  networks and into homes.”

Nordloh concluded, “Resiliency is often an important concern for our customers, and this system is designed so that the operation will be able to use their solar and storage in the event of a grid outage.”

The demand for energy storage in Hawaii is very large in the residential segment since Hawaii is trying to achieve 100-percent renewables by 2050. Because the grid can not absorb the output of residential solar now, energy storage is a must for future expansion.

About 350 MW of residential solar was installed in the state under the initial net metering (NEM) program that was capped in 2014. The estimated demand for additional solar installation in the state under the new Customer Grid-Supply program is 25.7 MW, of which only 9.3 MW had been installed as of April, 2016, according to the Hawaii State energy office.

As project developer, EnSync Energy’s distinctive engagement methodology encompasses load analysis, system design consulting, and technical and financial modeling to ensure energy systems are sized and optimized to meet customers’ objectives for value and performance.

Proprietary direct current (DC) power control hardware, energy management software, and extensive experience with numerous energy storage technologies uniquely positions EnSync Energy to deliver fully integrated systems that provide for efficient design, procurement, commissioning, and ongoing operation, the company says.

In addition to direct system sales, EnSync Energy includes power purchase agreements (PPAs) in its portfolio of offerings, which enables electricity savings for customers and provides a stable financial yield for investors. EnSync Energy is a global corporation, with joint venture Meineng Energy in AnHui, China, and energy project development subsidiary Holu Energy in Hawaii.

The U.S. made Hydrelio floating array is composed of 100 crystalline photovoltaic panels and will generate up to 51,000 kWh per year. Hydrelio permits standard solar PV panels to be installed on man-made bodies of water such as industrial reservoirs, storm water retention areas, dams or irrigation ponds. In this project, Hydrelio was installed on a storm water storage reservoir located at OUC’s Gardenia facility.

OUC was the first utility in Central Florida to build a large solar farm and was one of the first in the nation to offer community solar where its customers can invest in an array. The electricity produced with Hydrelio will serve some of OUC’s own electrical usage on-site, or be put into the grid.

As the first floating array of its size in Florida, OUC will use this project as a benchmark in order to promote more efficient ways to deploy floating PV systems designed by Ciel & Terre at other reservoirs throughout OUC’s service area.

A nearly 13-megawatt solar array is under construction now at OUC’s Stanton Energy Center where OUC also utilizes methane gas from the Orange County landfill to offset coal. These new developments in turn will make it easier for the state of Florida as a whole to integrate more solar technology.

Duke Energy Renewables will own both advanced microgrids, and its affiliate, REC Solar, will build the PV system. Schneider Electric will also assist Duke Energy Renewables in the operation of the microgrids. The two microgrids will become fully operational in 2018.

The microgrid as a service (MaaS) market was valued at $775 million in 2015 and is expected to reach $2.2 billion by 2022, at a CAGR of 15.86% during the forecast period, according to a new study by Research & Markets.

Improvements include upgrades in infrastructure at the two building complexes and natural gas generators that enable uninterrupted public services during emergencies.

Since Schneider Electric is funding and developing both microgrids as a MaaS business model, Montgomery County can complete construction without any up-front costs to the County. A special power purchase agreement helps pay for the microgrids through lower cost energy generation.

Schneider Electric will play a comprehensive role in designing and implementing this solution, including: micro-grid protection control and optimization, electrical equipment, distributed energy resource management, electrical design services, cybersecurity and network design.

The Montgomery County public safety complex houses central County Police and County Fire and Rescue Services functions, the Office of Emergency Management and Homeland Security, and the 1st District Police Station. The Montgomery County Correctional Facility, located in Boyds, Maryland, is responsible for the custody and care of about 1,000 inmates.

Aerospec recently inspected a 100MW solar farm in the U.S. which consists of approximately 450,000 modules. With its proprietary image processing technology and detection algorithm, Aerospec’s inspection report provided immediate actionable items to replace faulty panels, Li notes.

Aerospec determined that the solar farm had 3,500 faulty PV modules, worth approximately $1 million in replacement cost, which will be covered within the warranty period. If left unnoticed, these faulty PV modules would have resulted in close to a $350,000 annual revenue loss.

Using simple GPS and altitude information from a UAV has proven ineffective because thermal imaging cannot be adequately performed at a 90-degree angle. To overcome this challenge, engineers at Aerospec developed proprietary image-processing software that uses metadata with advanced computer vision and machine learning algorithms to precisely pinpoint faulty panels.

In the future, historical inspection data will be analyzed through cross-sectional and time-series comparison to identify performance hurdles and provide predictive analytics, Li says.

According to the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI), drones can perform a variety of tasks – including visual imaging (of modules, wiring, and other plant components), infrared thermography, and vegetation monitoring – that have the potential to update largely manual conventional processes and more efficiently identify and diagnose PV system performance issues.

The SP-12 Solar Weather Station, available in multiple configurations, measures the full range of environmental parameters that affect solar project performance. The station, mounted on a 2-meter tower and booms, combines industry-leading Kipp & Zonen pyranometers with Vaisala’s next-generation WXT536 multi-weather sensor, capable of measuring wind speed and direction, ambient temperature, humidity, pressure and rainfall. An integrated thermistor assesses panel temperature for determining thermal losses.

These measurements are collected and relayed by Vaisala’s Nomad 3 Data Logger, a rugged and reliable device that provides real-time remote access to site data by means of Vaisala’s SkyServe web platform, FTP and SCADA integration.

For prospective and operational solar sites, adding reliable ground-based measurements to the long-term records provided by sophisticated weather models is essential for making bankable production estimates and operational decisions that impact project revenue. Vaisala provides a unique perspective to the market with its ability to provide both ground measurements and modeled data analysis.

“The key to achieving the ‘gold standard’ of bankable resource data lies in combining the long-term variability record provided by satellite models with the micro-climate context of the project site,” said Gwendalyn Bender, Head of Solar Product Development at Vaisala. “In practice, this means investing equally in both modeling ‘software’ and measurement ‘hardware’ – and that’s what Vaisala has done with the launch of SP-12.”

The SP-12 Solar Weather Station has already been deployed at multiple locations across the U.S. and Canada, completing Vaisala’s platform of end-to-end solar project development, asset and portfolio management services.

“Vaisala offers a cost-competitive package for both the weather stations and tuning of satellite-derived irradiance data,” said Jeffrey Webber, Development Engineer at Cypress Creek Renewables, a U.S project developer and operator and an early adopter of the SP-12 Solar Weather Station.

This year’s census found that the solar industry continues to outpace most other sectors of the economy, adding workers at a rate nearly 17 times faster than the overall economy and accounting for two percent of all jobs created in the U.S. over the past year.

The solar industry now ranks second in total employment among energy industries, employing slightly more than natural gas and over twice as much as coal. The oil industry still has more total employment than solar by a factor of 38%.

Still, solar employment growth accounted for over 16% of all electric power generation and fuels employment growth over the course of 2016. Furthermore, solar employment growth was larger than employment growth in oil, natural gas, and coal combined.

Demand-side sectors — including installation, sales and distribution, and project development — make up about 78% of overall solar industry employment; installation accounts for the largest share of the solar workforce at 53%, manufacturing comprises the second largest share at almost 15%, and the project development sector represents 13 percent.

Approximately 41% of the 260,077 jobs were mostly in the residential market segment, while 28% were in commercial and 31% were in utility-scale project development. Utility-scale development is less labor intensive than residential, so there are fewer utility-scale jobs despite the greater amount of utility megawatts installed.

Women represent a greater proportion of the solar workforce than in previous years, having risen by the 28% reported in 2016. Minorities also have experienced increases: Latino/Hispanic solar workers increased to over 17% of the solar workforce in 2016, and African American workers increased from to over six percent.

Over the next 12 months, surveyed employers expect to see total employment in the solar industry increase by 10 percent to approximately 286,000 solar workers.

The project design could help GRID connect 50 low-income families with solar+storage in IID this year, and if replicated, could ensure that new PV customers in other utility territories reap solar benefits, even after net metering caps. IID is the third largest public power provider in California.

Since IID reached its 5% mandate cap, it has begun moving new PV customers into a “Net Billing” program that includes guaranteed grid interconnection fees paid to the utility, unlike the net metering program, in which some PV net generators avoided the fees. The new net billing program also sets a changeable rate for electricty that the utility pays to new net PV generators, currently set at the lowest PPA price that the utility pays for solar electricity, or about 6.98 cents per kW, according to IID documents.

IID is no stranger to storage. In October 2016, the Imperial Irrigation District and Coachella Energy Storage Partners began operating a 30MW/20MWh lithium-ion battery storage system, at the El Centro generating station. The project was designed to help the grid accommodate power from two large-scale solar projects, Midway III and SunPeak 2.

“As solar capacity, power purchase agreements and distributed generation rise in our electric system, this new battery energy storage system will help smooth variable generation and increase system-wide reliability. The system will provide a much faster, environmentally friendly alternative than traditional generation,” said IID Board of Directors President Stephen Benson, at startup.

Ziad Alaywan, CEO of ZGlobal, added that “It is one of the largest battery storage systems in the West.” General Electric provided Coachella Energy Storage Partners with an integrated storage solution that is one of GE’s largest energy storage projects to date. The project uses lithium ion batteries manufactured by Samsung SDI America.

Eos and Northern Power initiated the partnership focusing on development and optimization in 2016, and plan to deliver fully-integrated products to major utilities in the second quarter of 2017.

The initiative combines the Eos Aurora DC battery system with Northern Power’s advanced energy storage inverter, controls, and engineering expertise. The suite of integrated solutions provides four hours of usable energy using modular 250kW battery building blocks that are scalable for multi-MW applications.

Eos Aurora Znyth battery solution is powered by an aqueous, zinc hybrid cathode technology and available at a volume price of $160/kWh for the DC system, which includes an expected life of 5,000 full depth-of-discharge cycles.

Northern Power’s FlexPhase power converter technology leverages a modular, compact, and efficient design that is easy to service. The platform allows for a wide range of DC voltages suitable for a variety of battery types. The company’s proprietary PowerRouterTM controls allow for seamless transitions between grid and islanded operation, as well as black start capability.

“Batteries represent a significant portion of the performance and cost of an energy storage system,” said Chris McKay, Director of Sales at Northern Power Systems. “By using the Eos Aurora, we can deliver a fully integrated ESS solution at an all-in, installed price of less than $400/kWh — depending on project size and location but always with the quality, functionality and reliability that is characteristic of Northern Power.”

Northern Power and Eos are jointly developing and supplying industry-leading, turnkey ESS solutions offering seamless integration of batteries, power conversion, and controls along with installation and maintenance services as needed. The joint product represents a cost-effective option for utilities who want to provide relief in grid constrained areas, lower capacity payments, defer substation upgrades, and/or better integrate renewable energy. The integrated product is also appropriate for large commercial and industrial facilities looking to lower demand and peak energy charges, or provide resiliency against grid outages.

“Northern Power’s patented converter architecture and advanced controls technology are an excellent match for Eos’ battery offering. The team’s engineering capabilities will ensure successful system integration and performance for major utilities around the world,” said Eos Vice President of Business Development, Philippe Bouchard. “We are gratified to work on these projects with Northern and their clients, and Eos looks forward to deepening this relationship through the collaborative Eos Aegis integration program.”