Canadian Solar (Nasdaq: CSIQ), a global provider of solar modules, energy storage, and other clean energy components and solutions, announced its Q2 2024 earnings

The company posted $1.64 billion in revenues, roughly coming in line with Wall Street expectations. However, revenues are down from $2.36 billion in Q2 2023, and the company’s share price declin.ed about 15% in the trading session following the earnings report.

Canadian Solar attributed the decline in revenues to sharply falling global solar module prices.

Total module shipments recognized as revenues in the second quarter of 2024 were 8.2 GW, up 30% quarter-over-quarter and remained consistent year-over-year. Of the total, 135 MW were shipped to the company’s own utility-scale solar power projects.

“Today, we have reached an optimal scale—large enough to maintain a highly competitive cost structure yet lean enough to adapt swiftly to changes in industry dynamics,” said Dr. Shawn Qu, chairman and chief executive officer, Canadian Solar.

Shares fell as Canadian Solar forecast third quarter revenues of $1.6 billion to $1.8 billion, significantly lower than Wall Street expectations of $2.22 billion. The company now guides $6.5 billion to $7.5 billion for full year revenues, falling short of analyst estimates of $7.66 billion.

The company recorded 17.2% gross margin, in line with guidance of 16% to 18%. Its e-STORAGE order backlog grew to $2.6 billion, backed by a record 66 GWh of pipeline, as of June 30, 2024.

Its solar project development arm Recurrent Energy expanded its total development pipeline to 27 GW of solar and 63 GWh of battery energy storage, as of June 30, 2024. The company also achieved initial closing of BlackRock’s investment in Recurrent Energy, representing the majority of the planned $500 million capital infusion. During the quarter, the company also announced a $200 million private placement of secured convertible notes with PAG.

“In our module business, we continue to apply a disciplined approach to operations, from strategic capacity investments to stringent order management. At the same time, we are positioning ourselves for sustainable medium- and long-term growth through our energy storage business, e-STORAGE, and global project development platform, Recurrent Energy,” said Qu.

The company said Recurrent Energy will continue to increase leverage in the near-term to support its transition to a partial independent power producer (IPP) model. As of June 30, 2024, Recurrent Energy’s total solar project development pipeline was 27.4 GW, including 1.7 GW under construction, 4.8 GW of backlog, and 20.9 GW of projects in advanced and early-stage pipelines.

“While we continue to navigate challenging market conditions, our focus remains on sustainable, profitable growth. We are beginning to see signs of market rationalization, as module pricing and input costs reach record lows. In line with our commitment to strategic future planning, we are adjusting certain capacity investments to ensure a resilient financial profile. We anticipate stabilization in the second half of the year,” said Qu.

California advances flexible demand that can absorb renewable power  With flexible demand appliance standards for pool controls set to take effect in California next year, the state is now developing standards for electric storage water heaters, to be followed by standards for five more types of appliances.

PV systems can now support grid as fossil fuels decline A new report by the International Energy Agency’s Photovoltaics  Power Systems Programme (IEA-PVPS) says that existing PV systems have the technical capabilities to provide various frequency-related grid services.

Google invests in 800 MW solar project in Illinois The Double Black Diamond Solar project may be the largest solar installation east of the Mississippi when complete in 2025.

The Hydrogen Stream: U.S. companies, institutions present hydrogen plans As the hydrogen project in Appalachia moves on, American Airlines confirms its commitment to hydrogen aircrafts. Meanwhile, a Scottish distillery might soon run on hydrogen for whisky production.

Startup Enteligent secures $6 million to scale solar EV charging The company offers a DC-to-DC electric bidirectional electric vehicle charger that allows EVs to charge directly from solar panels without the need to convert to AC.

Natron Energy announces $1.4 billion sodium ion battery factory in North Carolina The company will open a 24 GW annual production facility, creating over 1,000 jobs.

Enteligent, a startup offering solar-powered DC-to-DC chargers for electric vehicles, announced it has raised $6 million in capital from investors to scale commercialization of its products.

The recent funds bring Enteligent’s capital raise to $19 million since 2021. The funding round was led by Taronga Ventures, a global technology investor in real estate and infrastructure.

Funds will primarily be used to scale commercialization of the company’s DC-based solar optimization solutions. This includes the company’s signature technology, the TLCEV DC-to-DC bidirectional electric vehicle charger. Enteligent said its product is the first EV charger to be powered directly by DC-source electricity.

The startup has already secured orders for its technology. The company is supplying its long-dwell-time 25kW DC-to-DC EV charger to a large logistics company to power its newly electrified delivery fleet.

Enteligent said that traditional fleet charging infrastructure uses AC Level 2 chargers that require significant engineering planning, long permitting wait times, and high costs. Furthermore, AC charging relies on the vehicle’s onboard AC/DC converter to charge its DC battery, which wastes 10% to 20% of the energy through conversion losses and is often limited to charge rates of 9.6 kW or less.

The company said its direct DC product leans on the inherent efficiency and reliability of DC technology. It avoids the energy conversion losses and equipment costs associated with converting solar energy from DC to AC and back again, which reduces overall expenses and makes clean energy more effective and affordable.

Entligent also manufactures solar rapid shutdown devices, module level power electronics, and other solar balance of systems components.

“Enteligent’s technology sets a new standard in maximizing solar energy efficiency,” said Jonathan Hannam, managing partner at Taronga Ventures. “Their holistic approach to solar power optimization offers practical solutions with real-world applications that meet the needs of global real asset owners and operators. Together, we can significantly advance decarbonization efforts for real assets.”

Swift Current Energy reported that it has closed on a tax equity investment from Google for its 800 MWdc Double Black Diamond Solar project in southern Illinois. The amount of funding by Google was not disclosed, but previous reporting by pv magazine USA stated that over $779 million in project financing was closed for this project, making it among the largest solar project financings in U.S. history.

Located 30 miles west of Springfield, Illinois, the Project is currently under construction and is expected to reach commercial operations by early 2025. Once operational, according to Swift Current Energy, Double Black Diamond Solar is expected to be the largest solar project east of the Mississippi River.

The tax equity financing makes use of energy communities and domestic content adders, provided in the Inflation Reduction Act.

Energy communities are those that are expected to face challenges in the transition away from fossil fuels, such as certain metropolitan statistical areas (MSA) and non-metropolitan statistical areas based on unemployment rates. The domestic content adder is a 10% tax credit bonus for solar, wind, and battery energy storage developers that install projects using U.S.-made components, adding to the 30% base investment tax credit.

“As we work to responsibly grow our infrastructure, we need to partner with companies like Swift Current who understand the nuances of the energy markets where we operate and can help unlock new clean energy at a rate that matches the pace and scale of demand growth on electric grids today,” said Amanda Peterson Corio, global head of data center energy at Google.

The project uses First Solar modules, a majority of which are being manufactured in the US, as well as solar trackers from U.S.-based Nextracker. At peak construction, the project employed approximately 500 construction workers. Swift Current is the project developer and will be the long-term owner and operator, and McCarthy Building Companies is the engineering, procurement, and construction (EPC) partner.

Swift Current Energy said that Double Black Diamond Solar will contribute to communities in Sangamon and Morgan counties. The Project, capable of powering 100,000 homes annually, is expected to reduce regional carbon dioxide emissions by approximately one million tons per year.

“We are proud to be home to one of the largest clean energy projects in the nation,” said Andy Van Meter, Sangamon County board chairman. “The Double Black Diamond Solar project brings significant economic benefits to our community, contributing $100 million in tax revenue and supporting hundreds of jobs. This project is a win for both our community and the environment.”

Energy producer Constellation NewEnergy reportedly will purchase a portion of the energy and renewable energy credits (RECs) generated by Double Black Diamond Solar to serve the seven customers that have been announced. The City of Chicago will source renewable energy produced by the Project to power several energy-intensive facilities, including Chicago O’Hare International Airport and Midway International Airport. Additionally, Cook County Illinois, CVS Health, Loyola University of Chicago, PPG, State Farm, and TransUnion have agreements to purchase power from the Project via Constellation.

Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group (MUFG), Societe Generale, Truist and ING provided construction financing for the Project. Vinson & Elkins LLP and Husch Blackwell LLP represented Swift Current in the transaction. Milbank LLP and Bryan Cave Leighton Paisner LLP represented Google.

It has been two years since the passage of the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 (IRA), and like any complicated and multi-faceted policy, the IRA is a mixed bag of successes and failures. Let’s start with the successes.

The IRA created a tax credit transfer market, and it is thriving.  Our firm has closed almost $5 billion in tax credits transfers across over 40 deals. For our deals, the high price is 97 cents on the dollar and the low is 83 cents on the dollar. Much of the difference in price depends on the quality of the indemnity that backstops the buyer’s purchase of the tax credits. The high end of the range has investment grade indemnitors/guarantors or a tax credit insurance policy, while the low end of the range has an unrated indemnitor that is not backstopped by tax credit insurance.

The Treasury issued final regulations about tax credit transfers, but “the credit” really goes to Senator Joe Manchin (I-WVa) who decided that such things were better handled by the private sector than the IRS. In contrast, the activity around “direct pay” (i.e., a refund from the IRS) for tax-exempt project owners, clean energy component manufacturers, carbon capture and hydrogen projects is anemic. The eligible participants are, generally, avoiding direct pay due to concerns about the time it will take the IRS to process the direct pay requests and potential haircuts.

Tax credit transfers have been a success despite Treasury’s regulations consistently favoring tax policy over stimulating clean energy. Examples of that include the approach to the passive activity loss rules that limit the ability of individuals to buy tax credits that is even stricter than the passive activity loss regulations themselves: the transfer regulations preclude an election to “group” hours for an individual to reach the active threshold, while the passive activity loss regulations actually allow such an election for activities the combination thereof is an “appropriate economic unit.”

Further, Treasury’s regulations prohibit combining a lease pass-through (also known as an inverted lease) investment tax credit election with transferability (or direct pay), even though that election is provided for in the tax code.

The other gaps in the Treasury regulations are (i) that we don’t know whether the IRS is going to audit tax credit buyers or sellers (sellers make more sense, but buyers have the money) and (ii) we don’t know whether transaction costs for tax credit transfers are deductible.

Further, Treasury’s online registration portal is backed up, and Treasury is telling registrants that it can’t process registrations for 2024 until October because it has 2023 registrations it needs to process before the extension the buyers and sellers of tax credits that accrued in 2023 have to file their 2023 tax returns are up in September for partnerships and October for corporations.  The resourceful tax credit transfer industry is finding ways to work around these issues.

A related goal of the IRA was to democratize tax equity. The IRA has made progress in that direction but has not fully succeeded.  Thinly capitalized solar developers may be able to access the tax credit transfer market after paying a tax credit insurer, a tax credit transfer broker, a law firm and for investment credit deals, an appraiser.  While well-capitalized solar developers can probably pull it off with a law firm and for investment credit deals an appraiser.  Thus, the well-capitalized developers likely raise five cents or more on the dollar versus their thinly capitalized competitors.  It may sound small, but over time it compounds and leaves the well-capitalized miles ahead.

The 10% tax credit adder for projects built in “energy communities” appears to have been mostly successful. For the most part, developers are able to determine whether their projects qualify for that adder and are able to monetize the adder in the tax credit transfer market. This is due to Treasury publishing guidance that is relatively clear and based on objective standards. Further, we are seeing projects developed on closed coal sites and in communities with a history of significant fossil fuel employment.

At the moment, the 10% domestic content tax credit adder is a split decision.  The domestic content adder appears to have spurred the construction of a flurry of factories making solar modules and batteries, but most of those factories are not online yet.

Treasury’s original guidance on the domestic content adder was unworkable. To address that safe harbors were promulgated for solar, onshore wind and batteries. The safe harbors for solar and onshore wind seems to be viable. There is some cautious optimism about the safe harbor for storage. Technologies like geothermal heat pumps, fuel cells, renewable natural gas and offshore wind do not currently have a safe harbor and find themselves unsure about how to determine eligibility for the domestic content tax credit adder.

IRA failures

Grab a stiff drink and let’s turn to the IRA’s failures.  First, based on anecdotal evidence, the prevailing wage and apprentice rules are not creating much value for the nation.  Most folks building solar projects are already being paid wages not much different than the Department of Labor’s prevailing wage due to a tight market for skilled labor.  Therefore, the prevailing wage rules are burdening the solar industry with concerns about a foot fault in their record-keeping resulting in large penalties or worse yet a reduction in the tax credits a project is eligible for by 80%, while not stimulating higher wages for skilled tradesman needed to build solar and other clean energy projects.  It has created a cottage industry for consulting and accounting firms to verify the appropriate wages are being paid, but the nation was already facing a shortage of accountants.  Let’s not even discuss the shortage of tax lawyers.

In terms of apprentices, it appears most projects are qualifying for an exemption from the apprentice requirements because apprentices are not available. Therefore, the well-intentioned rules do not appear to be spurring America’s young people to forego video games for learning a trade. Thus, the apprentice rules create a concern for project developers and their contractors about a costly tax credit foot fault while not spurring a renaissance in the trades.  If solar and the other clean energy technologies are needed to save the planet from climate change, should we be burdening projects deploying these technologies with cumbersome requirements that are not resulting in more skilled tradesmen?

Finally, there are the proposed investment tax credit regulations.  Those regulations fail to clearly answer some basic questions the industry has been asking for years like how much of a solar parking canopy qualifies for the investment credit.  Further, Treasury has gone out on a limb requiring all equipment integral to a project to have a common owner and only allowing tax credits for repairs and upgrades if less than 20% of the improved project has its origins in the original equipment.

However, the investment credit regulations appear to have what is something of an unexpected gift. The Department of Energy (DOE) seems to have prevailed upon the Treasury to broadly interpret the rule about the investment credit for interconnection costs.  The apparent motivation for this is to spur improvements to the nation’s anachronistic grid.

The statutory allowance for the investment credit on interconnection costs has a 5 MW capacity threshold. However, the proposed regulations appear to say that threshold is applied at the inverter level for solar and the turbine level for wind. For instance, it appears that a solar project that most industry participants would say has 200 MWs of capacity (i.e., it exceeds the 5 MW threshold) would qualify, so long as no inverter is serving 5 MW or more (e.g., there are 50 inverters each serving 4 MW).  This interpretation appears to have been confirmed by the proposed section 48E regulations (i.e., the tech neutral investment credit).  However, many law firms’ tax opinion committees are by nature conservative and are waiting to bless “will” level opinions under the traditional section 48 until Treasury confirms the favorable interpretation in the final section 48 regulations.

The implementation of the IRA has resulted in a range of policies outcomes. However, as is usually the case, the nimble and creative have faired well, while concerns about whether the nation is doing enough to address existential threat of climate change remain unabated.

David Burton is a partner at Norton Rose Fulbright. He advises clients on a wide range of U.S. tax matters, with an emphasis on project finance and energy transactions. He has extensive experience structuring tax-efficient transactions for wind and other renewables with particular expertise with respect to flip partnerships and sale-leasebacks. Earlier in his career, David was the managing director and senior tax counsel at GE Energy Financial Services (GE EFS) where he oversaw all of the tax aspects for more than US$21 billion in global energy projects. 

From pv magazine Global

Sinovoltaics, a Hong Kong-based quality assurance services firm, released the third edition of its Sinovoltaics PV inverter manufacturer financial stability ranking, featuring 32 manufacturers. The ranking is based on publicly available information on publicly traded companies.

The top ten inverter manufacturers are China’s Hoymiles Power Electronics, Irish energy management specialist Eaton, U.S.-based microinverter specialist Enphase Energy, China-based Kstar Science and Technology and Taiwan-based Delta Electronics, followed by China’s Sinexcel, Switzerland-based ABB, China’s Goodwe, France’s Schneider Electric and U.S.-based Emerson.

In this edition, Schneider Electric is new to the top ten, coming up from fifteenth to ninth.

Sinovoltaics notes that the report, which is global in scope and calculated since September 2021, provides insight into how the financial strength of inverter manufacturers has evolved over the past three years. The report is free to download.

The ranking is based on a so-called Altmann Z-score, a quantitative formula that uses multiple corporate income and balance sheet values to measure the financial health of a company. Sinovoltaics assesses a company’s financial strength through a credit-strength test based on profitability, leverage, liquidity, solvency and activity ratios.

A score that is 1.1 or lower indicates a higher probability of bankruptcy within the next two years, while a higher score of 2.6 or greater indicates a solid financial position.

Sinovoltaics has published several other manufacturer rankings for the quarter, including reports focused on battery manufacturers and module manufacturers. It notes that the financial ranking does not indicate the quality of the equipment, rather they are meant to be used as an element of the due diligence process, or to help identify financially stable partners.

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Loans Programs Office (LPO) announced a conditional commitment for a loan guarantee of up to $1.45 billion to Qcells to support its North American solar manufacturing expansions.

The loan guarantee is offered through LPO’s Title 17 Clean Energy Financing Program, which includes financing opportunities for innovative energy and supply chain projects and projects that reinvest in existing energy infrastructure.

The company is developing a solar ingot, wafer, cell, and solar panel manufacturing facility, supplying each stage of the solar supply chain from raw polysilicon to end-user components. The facility, located in Cartersville, Georgia, will be the largest ingot and wafer plant in the United States, addressing critical early stages of the supply chain.

Once fully operational, the facility is expected to produce 3.3 GW of solar panels per year. This is roughly enough solar capacity to power half a million U.S. households, said the company. It is also equivalent to reducing emissions from power generation by more than 5 million tons of carbon dioxide per year.

The project is expected to support 1,200 construction jobs and, upon completion, 1,950 full-time operations jobs. Approximately 40% to 50% of the construction work has been awarded to local contractors, including contractors from Atlanta, Georgia and Chattanooga, Tennessee. According to an economic review by the Cartersville-Bartow County Department of Economic Development, the investment will create nearly 6,800 jobs in Bartow and Whitfield Counties and has a potential sales output of more than $2 billion.

Panels produced at the site will be designed for both distributed and utility-scale applications. Qcells is also among the largest utility-scale project developers for both solar and storage in the United States with over 2 GW of projects developed or constructed and a project development pipeline of over 10 GW. The company has entered into an 8-year, 12 GW solar and engineering, procurement, and construction (EPC) agreement with Microsoft to be fulfilled with solar panels made in Cartersville.

Components produced by the project are expected to benefit from the 45X Advanced Manufacturing Production Tax Credit. Qcells’ products produced at the site are also expected to contribute to project eligibility for the domestic content 10% tax credit bonus.

“Since IRA’s passage, over 325 GW of manufacturing capacity has been announced across the solar supply chain, representing more than 31,000 potential jobs and nearly $16 billion in announced investments across 111 new facilities or expansions,” said a press release from DOE.

While this conditional commitment indicates DOE’s intent to finance the project, DOE and the company must satisfy certain technical, legal, environmental, and financial conditions before the Department enters into definitive financing documents and funds the loan.

Sunrun (Nasdaq: RUN) delivered its Q2, 2024 earnings, meeting analyst expectations for revenue and delivering promising guidance for cash generation in 2025. 

The residential solar and energy storage provider reported $524 million in revenue for the quarter, in-line with Wall Street expectations. The company delivered a surprise earnings per share of $0.55, up from the expected loss ($0.40). The stock is trading up roughly 15% during the trading session post-earnings report.

For businesses in the residential solar industry, generating cash and cover debts has become an area of focus for investors. Sunrun had a strong performance in this area, generating $217 million in cash in Q2. The company reiterated its guidance of $50 million to $125 million in cash generation in Q4 and introduced guidance of $350 million to $600 million in 2025. 

Sunrun added 26,687 customers in the second quarter, about 94% of which were lease or power purchase agreement customers. Annual recurring revenue from subscribers was approximately $1.5 billion as of June 30, 2024. 

Net earning assets increased to $5.7 billion, including over $1 billion in total cash. 

Sunrun posted strong execution in capital markets, as well, closing an $886 million securitization of residential solar and battery systems. The two classes of non-recourse Class A senior notes were rated A+ by Kroll with the $443.15 million public Class A-1 note priced at a credit spread of 205 basis points. The Class A notes represented an advance rate of approximately 72.6%. 

Energy storage capacity installed reached 192 MW in Q2, reaching prior expectations. Sunrun now has 7.1 GW of networked solar energy capacity. 

“In the second quarter we again set new records for both storage installation and attachment rates, further differentiating Sunrun in the industry, beating the high-end of our storage installation guidance and delivering solid quarter-over-quarter growth for solar installation, Cash Generation and Net Subscriber Value,” said Mary Powell, Sunrun’s Chief Executive Officer. 

Energy storage attachment rates increased to 54%, up from 18% in the same period in 2023. Sunrun has now installed more than 116,000 solar and storage systems, representing nearly 1.8 GWh of stored energy capacity. 

Sunrun also launched a partnership with Tesla to support the Texas power grid. More than 150 Sunrun customers have enrolled in a virtual power plant (VPP) program to be compensated for dispatching electricity from their batteries to the grid when power is needed most. Additionally, during prolonged power outages in the aftermath of Hurricane Beryl, more than 1,600 Sunrun customers in the greater Houston area were able to keep their homes energized with more than 70,000 hours of backup energy provided by their solar-plus-storage systems.

Goldman Sachs announced it has invested $440 million under its Alternatives fund in BrightNight, a renewable power company providing solutions to utility, commercial, and industrial customers.

BofA Securities, Inc. and PJT Partners acted as financial advisors to BrightNight. Jefferies LLC acted as sole financial advisor and Weil, Gotshal & Manges served as legal counsel to Goldman Sachs Alternatives. The transaction is expected to close this September.

The funds are expected to help BrightNight advance its five-year business plan and execute a 31 GW renewable power portfolio. A proprietary AI software program, PowerAlpha is used to support the management of the company’s portfolio.

“We have quickly established a large and differentiated portfolio in high-demand growth markets seeking decarbonizing renewable energy solutions to meet growing load and reliability needs,” said BrightNight chairman and chief executive officer Martin Hermann.

Goldman Sachs said the two entities share a joint ambition to build a leading renewable independent power producer (IPP). The investor said it will provide long-term capital backing and leverage relationships in the sector to support BrightNight.

“Demand for renewable energy continues to benefit from strong secular energy transition tailwinds, including substantial corporate decarbonization goals and both federal and state-level policy support,” said Teresa Mattamouros, managing director in Infrastructure at Goldman Sachs Alternatives. “We have been impressed by BrightNight’s unique development approach, focusing on markets with attractive commercial dynamics and targeting high-value interconnection positions.”

Along with Goldman Sachs, investor Global Infrastructure Partners will continue its existing capital commitments to fund construction equity needs and will also maintain its minority equity interests.

Nextracker (Nasdaq: NXT), a U.S.-based solution provider of solar trackers and software, posted its earnings for Q1 fiscal year 2025.

For nine consecutive years, the company stands as the global market leader in solar tracer solutions for utility-scale tracers based on GW shipped, according to Wood Mackenzie.

“Our products enable solar panels power plants to follow the sun’s movement across the sky and optimize plant performance. With power plants operating in 40 countries worldwide, Nextracker offers solar tracker technologies that increase energy production while reducing costs for significant plant ROI,” said the company in a letter to shareholders.

The company recorded strong growth, closing Q1 FY25 revenues of $720 million, up 50% from the $480 million in revenue in Q1 FY24.

Adjusted EBITDA for the quarter was $175 million, up 109% from the previous year’s adjusted EBITDA of $84 million. Adjusted EBITDA included $47 million of benefits from the Inflation Reduction Act’s 45X manufacturing tax credit.

This marks the sixth consecutive quarter of double-digit revenue growth year-over-year since Nextracker’s initial public offering. Most of the company’s Q1 revenue was in the United States (71% of total), reflecting a strong 90% year-over-year growth in U.S. revenues.

Nextracker’s Q1 gross profit increased year-over-year from $114 million in FY24 to $237 million in FY25. Its operating income increased from $82 million to $184 million and adjusted diluted earnings per share nearly doubled from $0.48 to $0.93. The company posted an adjusted free cash flow generation of $118 million in Q1 and $319 million for trailing twelve months.

The company’s order backlog continues to grow, increasing quarter-over-quarter and now standing at over $4 billion.

Business highlights:

• Launched NX Horizon Low Carbon Tracker in April 2024, the industry’s first low-carbon tracker solution
• Unveiled agrivoltaic solution in July 2024, including a suite of AgriPV solutions for agricultural and ranching sites
• Expanded JM Steel’s Pittsburgh facility with Nextracker-dedicated manufacturing in April 2024
• Opened a second Nevada factory by Unimacts with Nextracker-dedicated manufacturing in June 2024Acquired foundation specialist Ojjo in June 2024Acquired the foundations business of Solar Pile International (SPI) in July 2024
• Amended credit agreement and expanded revolver facility from $500 million to $1 billion on June 21, 2024Currently expect 100% U.S. domestic content capability with an early CY25 planned ship date

“Our fiscal year is off to an excellent start with another quarter of strong execution, where healthy demand dynamics continued for solar trackers in both the U.S. and international markets,” said Dan Shugar, founder and chief executive officer of Nextracker. “We also unveiled new product solutions, expanded several of our partner manufacturing facilities, and added foundations solutions with the acquisitions of Ojjo and Solar Pile International’s foundations business.”

Paces, a GIS and data platform, recently completed its Series A funding round, raising $11 million.

The round was led by Navitas Capital, an early stage venture capital fund, with participation from Suffolk Technologies and MCJ Collective, and existing investors Resolute Ventures, Soma Capital, and Y Combinator.

Paces provides software solutions to renewable energy developers that is designed to reduce time and provide transparency to site origination and permitting processes.

‍“Meeting the challenge of the energy transition requires new solutions to enable development of the energy ecosystem,” said Louis Schotsky, managing partner, Navitas Capital. “We are incredibly excited to support Paces as they expand their transformative approach to pre-construction for grid-connected projects. Paces is tackling the critical challenges of electrifying our economy, accelerating the development of renewable energy and industrial load projects and streamlining the energy ecosystem.”

Paces reports that its software streamlines the traditionally manual process of site selection and project due diligence by consolidating and interpreting spatial, zoning, permitting, interconnection, and environmental data.

The software lets developers use their own custom parameters to locate the most viable sites for development. Then by using local, state and federal zoning, permitting and geospatial data, its core tool, Permitting Predictor, assesses risk and delivers concise summaries to empower developers to make informed decisions during due diligence.

‍“The Paces platform has significantly improved our site selection process and quality control, allowing us to increase the number of solar projects we deliver to communities across the country,” said Ned Horneffer, director of development, Third Pillar Solar. ‍

The company reports that it will put the $11 million in new funding to use in enhancing its software platform, expanding availability of Permitting Predictor across the U.S. and enhancing its data intelligence.

“Paces is committed to maximizing the climate benefits of every piece of land,” said James McWalter, co-founder and CEO, Paces.  “By expanding our capabilities to accelerate additional components of the due diligence process and serving new sectors like EV charging and data centers, we’re taking a significant step towards realizing this goal. This Series A funding will fuel our growth and impact, allowing us to enhance our platform and support the entire clean energy infrastructure ecosystem.”

Paces reports that its current client list includes EDF Renewables, AES, along with Third Pillar Solar.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

MIT scientists optimize perovskite solar cell components Researchers at MIT have enhanced the stability of Spiro-MeOTAD in perovskite solar cells, achieving over 1,400 hours of high-temperature testing with minimal degradation in a lower efficiency cell.

WoodMac says global solar tracker shipments grew by 28% in 2023 Global tracker shipments reached 92 GWdc last year, according to WoodMackenzies’ latest report. The US accounted for the majority of the global market, with three US-based manufacturers, Nextracker, Array Technologies and GameChange Solar, ranking as the three largest shippers in the world.

Interview: My experience as a battery energy storage homeowner What is it like being a residential solar and energy storage prosumer living in California? Ahmad Faruqui, economist-at-large, shares his perspective with pv magazine USA .

Wafer prices near bottom, size evolution and capacity globalization continue In a new weekly update for pv magazine, OPIS, a Dow Jones company, provides a quick look at the main price trends in the global PV industry.

Tesla continues scaling up energy storage business in China The announcement of Tesla’s battery factory in Shanghai marked the company’s entry into the Chinese market. Amy Zhang, analyst at InfoLink Consulting, looks at what this move could bring for the US battery storage maker and the broader Chinese market.

How long do residential solar batteries last? Multiple factors affect lifespan of a residential battery energy storage system. We examine the life of batteries in Part 3 of our series.

Energy storage opportunities in Mid-Atlantic region await clear state policies Panelists at RE+ in Philadelphia said storage deployment in the PJM region lags others, but doesn’t have to.

U.S. engineers develop ChatGPT algorithm to design solar cells OptoGPT is a new algorithm that harnesses the computer architecture underpinning ChatGPT. Its creators say that it will enable researchers and engineers to design optical multilayer film structures for a wide range of applications, including solar cells.

People on the move: Origis Energy, EVPassport, and more Job moves in solar, storage, cleantech, utilities and energy transition finance.

California replacing nuclear with solar plus storage Clearway Energy has secured financing for the 200 MW Luna Valley Solar & Storage facility and the 113.5 MW Dagget energy storage project in California. These projects have signed PPAs that are part of a collection of projects being developed across the state intended to replace the potentially retiring Diablo Canyon Nuclear Power Plant.

Heliene and Premier Energies announce U.S. solar cell factory Heliene is a solar module provider operating in North America, while Premier Energies is the second largest solar cell manufacturer in India.

How long do residential solar inverters last? Multiple factors affect the productive lifespan of a residential solar inverter. In Part 2 of our series, we look at solar inverters.

GADS reporting required for far more solar facilities in 2025 With the North American Reliability Corporation’s Generating Availability Data System’s requirement dropping for 100 MW to 20 MW solar installations, many more solar installers will need to comply.

California community action agency breaks ground on vehicle-to-grid solar project The 1.5 MW ground-mount solar farm will be installed on a fixed-tilt racking system. Excess energy will be stored in a Nuvve-branded pre-validated battery energy storage system (BESS) integrated with Nuvve’s vehicle-to-grid platform.

ReCreate unveils details of U.S. solar cell, module factory The new venture is expected to bring 2 GW of solar module manufacturing capacity to the US market within 18 to 24 months.

How long do residential solar panels last? Multiple factors affect the productive lifespan of a residential solar panel. In the first part of this series, we look at the solar panels themselves.

New design for antimony trisulfide solar cells promises 30% higher efficiency An international research team has proposed a series of optimization techniques for antimony trisulfide (Sb2S3) solar cells that may reportedly increase the efficiency of these PV devices to over 11%. The resulting new cell design is said to significantly improve band alignment control and parameter optimization.

Trina Solar probing potential breaches of TOPCon patents Trina Solar says it has started evaluating potential violations of some of its patents for tunnel oxide passivated contact (TOPCon) tech. One of the patents focuses on the number of busbars and their width in TOPCon solar panels.

Reducing solar project timelines and costs with integrated switchboards Utility-scale solar projects can be developed more rapidly and cost effectively through the use of integrated switchboards, said a report from Castillo Engineering, Recon Corporation, EPEC and ReBoSS.

U.S. Senators introduce comprehensive energy permitting reform act Joe Manchin (I-WV) and John Barrasso (R-WY) released the Energy Permitting Reform Act of 2024, promising to accelerate the permitting processes for energy and mineral projects of all types in the U.S.

DOE’s Liftoff Plan: Three actions utilities can implement While it may take more time for solar energy to become an integral part of power generation across the U.S., utility companies can prepare now to capitalize on the opportunities ahead as the DOE initiative moves to transform the grid for generations to come.

The Hydrogen Stream: Europe could miss 2030 hydrogen targets The European Court of Auditors says the European Union will likely fail to achieve its 2030 renewable hydrogen goals, while the US Department of Energy and Arches have agreed to build a $12.6 billion hydrogen hub in California.

DOE offers conditional loan guarantee for 200 MW solar, 285 MW storage in Puerto Rico Two solar-plus-storage projects in Puerto Rico eligible for a loan guarantee would double the territory’s utility-scale solar capacity.

Canadian government extends heat pump grant scheme The provincial government of Prince Edward Island, Canada, has signed an agreement with the Canadian federal government to implement the Oil to Heat Pump Affordability (OHPA) program. The scheme offers grants to low- and medium-income households to install heat pumps and has nationally delivered more than 7,000 units to date.

$7 billion federal ‘Solar for All’ program faces vendor and compliance challenges A group of panelists at the RE+ conference in Philadelphia, panelists provided updates on the EPA-administered Solar for All Program, which extends solar access to low income households.

Massachusetts passes pro-solar and energy storage reforms The Massachusetts House of Representatives passed a bill to put time limits on solar permit processing, streamlined appeals processes, energy storage procurement goals, and more.

The Loan Programs Office of the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) has made a conditional commitment for a loan guarantee for up to $861 million to finance construction of solar-plus-storage projects and standalone storage projects in Puerto Rico.

The project developer and prospective borrower, Clean Flexible Energy LLC, is an indirect subsidiary of AES Corporation (AES) and TotalEnergies Holdings USA, Inc., and is managed under a joint venture agreement between the two.

The planned facilities, located in the municipalities of Guayama and Salinas, include two sites encompassing 200 MW of solar co-located with 285 MW of 4-hour batteries (1.14 GWh). Two other standalone battery storage sites would have a storage capacity not disclosed by DOE.

Puerto Rico currently has 154 MW of utility-scale solar, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration.

The U.S. territory’s distributed solar capacity reached 842 MW by April this year, while residential storage has reached 1.6 GWh. The consultancy Wood Mackenzie has projected that over the next ten years more than 90% of Puerto Rico’s solar additions will be distributed solar.

Puerto Rico’s Act 17 calls for reaching 40% renewable generation by 2025—a target that is now very challenging to meet—and to reach 60% by 2040 and 100% by 2050.

Puerto Rico’s technical potential for utility-scale solar ranges from 14.2 GW under a “less land” scenario to 44.7 GW under a “more land” scenario, according to the National Renewable Energy Laboratory’s “PR 100” summary report published early this year. A technical potential analysis does not consider the financial viability of projects.

To secure the loan guarantee, Clean Flexible Energy LLC must first satisfy certain technical, legal, environmental, and financial conditions before DOE enters into definitive financing documents.

AES operates 19 GW of renewables capacity globally as part of its 35 GW generating portfolio, according to an investor presentation. AES also operates electric utilities.

TotalEnergies aims to reach 28 GW of installed renewable capacity globally this year, according to an investor presentation. The firm is also involved in fossil fuel production, refining and sales and electricity generation.

Tesla lands 15.3 GWh Megapack supply contract Tesla has received a giant order from U.S. developer Intersect Power, equating to around 165% of the total battery energy storage systems it deployed in Q2 2024, which saw the highest quarterly deployment in the company’s history to date.

690 MW solar-plus-storage project in U.S. now operational in Nevada Gemini is located thirty minutes outside of Las Vegas and with its 1.8 million solar panels, will power about 10% of Nevada’s peak power demand.

Weak demand continues to exert downward pressure on solar module prices In a new weekly update for pv magazine, OPIS, a Dow Jones company, provides a quick look at the main price trends in the global PV industry.

First Solar probes potential infringement of TOPCon patents First Solar says it is evaluating potential infringement of its patents for its tunnel oxide passivated contact (TOPCon) tech, secured through the acquisition of TetraSun in 2013. The US thin-film solar module manufacturer has not named the companies involved or given a timeline for the investigation.

More than half of California solar customers to include battery storage Falling battery costs, shifting regulations and interest in energy independence are driving increased battery attachment rates on residential solar projects in California.

In case you missed it: Five big solar stories in the news this week  Agrivoltaics in Ohio. Elastocalorics may replace heat pumps. U.S. residential solar is down. And more.

Residential solar company SunPower (Nasdaq: SPWR) suffered a 70% decline in share prices of its stock this week, crashing nearly 50% on Friday, July 19.

Reuters reported that SunPower communicated to its employees that it will pause several core operations. The company announced it will deactivate its lease and power purchase agreement offerings and will discontinue new product shipments.

SunPower said it will stop countersigning new agreements and is unable to support installation services for shipments currently in transit or already delivered.

Residential solar in the United States has been struggling over the past two years as rising interest rates and regulatory changes have squeezed the value offered to customers. As demand fell, rising excess inventory posed further challenges for installers. Installations are down 20% nationwide in 2024.

SunPower’s struggles have continued through persistent high interest rates. In December 2023 the company defaulted on its debt and issued a warning that it had “going concerns” about remaining in business.

In April the company announced it would close numerous installation service centers across the country and cut about 26% of its workforce.

The company’s share price target was cut to $0 by Gordon Johnson from GLJ Research. Roth Capital Partners said competitors Sunrun and Sunnova are likely to gain from the lost market share left behind by SunPower.

“We think this effectively marks the end for SPWR as an operating business,” said an analyst note from Guggenheim. “Considering the debt that the company has accumulated, we believe that SPWR’s equity no longer has any value.”

Primergy and Quinbrook Infrastructure Partners announced that the Gemini solar-plus-storage project outside of Las Vegas, Nevada is now operational.

The 1.8 million solar panels are expected to generate up to 690 MW and they’re co-located with 380 MW of 4-hour battery energy storage (1,400 MWh). Using a DC-coupled storage configuration enables the batteries to be charged directly by solar, thus increasing efficiency.

In April 2022 the two companies announced that they had closed on a landmark deal of $1.9 billion in debt and tax equity financing project. The debt financing consists of $1.3 billion in credit facilities and $532 million in tax equity commitments, with the tax equity commitments provided by Truist Bank and Bank of America.

In constructing the project, which is on federal land, Primergy reports that it “created and implemented an unprecedented framework for ecosystem management” by leaving vegetation in place and using a tracker system that follows the natural undulations of the ground. The company estimates that it was able to reduce the project’s land footprint by over 20%.

During construction the project reportedly created approximately 1,300 union and prevailing wage jobs and contributed approximately $463 million to Nevada’s economy.

“Gemini creates a blueprint for holistic and innovative clean energy development at mega scale, and we are proud to have brought this milestone project to life and to have delivered so many positive impacts across job creation, environmental stewardship, and local community engagement,” said David Scaysbrook, co-founder and managing partner of Quinbrook.

The project uses Maxeon Solar Technologies’ solar modules that use bifacial mono-PERC solar cells made on large format 8-inch G12 wafers. Maxeon reports that these modules offer efficiency of over 21%, enhanced shade tolerance, and power ratings of up to 625 watts. The modules are mounted on trackers from Array and Ojjo, which are specifically designed to withstand harsh desert environments and high wind speeds with a patented wind-mitigation system.

Primergy selected Kiewit Power Constructors Co. as Gemini’s engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) partner and IHI Terrasun Solutions as the integrator for the project’s 380 MW/1,520 MWh lithium-ion battery.

NV Energy signed a 25-year power purchase agreement for the energy produced by the Gemini plant. It is  expected to meet 10% of Nevada’s peak energy needs.

Primergy Solar is a developer, owner and operator specializing in utility-scale solar PV and battery storage projects across the U.S. Quinbrook Infrastructure Partners is an investment manager focused on the infrastructure needed to drive the energy transition in the UK, U.S., and Australia.

Solar corporate funding drops to $16.6 billion in H1 High interest rates, an uncertain rate trajectory and timeline, increasing trade barriers, supply chain challenges, concerns about the presidential election’s impact on the sector, and constantly evolving trade policies have created a climate of uncertainty.

First Solar commissions 1.3 million square-foot R&D facility The Jim Nolan Center for Solar Innovation in Lake Township, Ohio includes a high-tech pilot manufacturing line allowing for the production of full-sized prototypes of thin film and tandem PV modules.

Intersect Power closes $837 million in financing for three battery systems in Texas Each project comprises 86 Tesla Megapacks and will provide a capacity of 320 MWh of battery storage with a two-hour duration.

S&P Global launches daily spot market price assessment for solar panels The tool has been billed as the world’s first independent daily spot market price assessment for solar panels. S&P Global says it has been launched to aid transparency in technology pricing as solar modules become increasingly commoditized.

Generac awarded up to $200 million from DOE for solar and storage in Puerto Rico The funds seek to build energy resilience in Puerto Rico, where hurricanes and other extreme weather frequently leave residents without power.

North American solar power purchase agreements rise 3% in Q2 LevelTen Energy released its quarterly PPA Price Index Report, showing an increase in prices following a modest drop in Q1.

Intersect Power announced the closing of two separate transactions representing an aggregate of $837 million of financing commitments for the construction and operation of three standalone battery energy storage systems (BESS) in Texas.

The transactions cover portfolio-level construction debt, tax equity  and term debt financing for three large-scale projects, Lumina I, Lumina II, and Radian, all of which are expected to be operational in 2024.

Each project comprises 86 Tesla Megapacks. Lumina II and Radian will be operated by Autobidder, Tesla’s real-time trading platform. The three sites will each provide a capacity of 320 MWh of battery storage with a two-hour duration.

“Batteries will be a vital part of the energy transition and are the perfect complement to the billions of dollars of solar generation that we are building in California and Texas,” said Sheldon Kimber, CEO and founder of Intersect Power. “These assets should allow us to provide more consistent financial performance from a diversified fleet of renewable generation and storage, benefiting from increasing market volatility and periods of high prices while protecting us from periods of low market prices. This stability will be critical as we expect to triple the size of our portfolio over the next three years.”

Morgan Stanley will provide tax equity, and funds and accounts managed by HPS Investment Partners will be making construction debt and term debt investments. Deutsche Bank is partnering in the construction debt facility and providing the operational letters of credit to the projects.

“These standalone batteries are much-needed infrastructure that will increase grid reliability and improve energy security as the U.S. transitions to a low-carbon economy,” said Jorge Iragorri, Managing Director and Head of Renewable Energy Investments at Morgan Stanley.

Intersect reports that the projects qualify for investment tax credits (ITC) under the Inflation Reduction Act. The ITC allows a federal tax credit of 30% of installed system costs for clean energy technologies like solar, wind and energy storage. The credit is offered as a base 6%, and the 30% credit is only offered to projects that satisfy prevailing wage requirements.

Intersect has a base portfolio of 2.2 GW of operating solar PV and 2.4 GWh of storage in operation or construction. The company states that its business plan includes growth in grid-tied renewables, as well as large-scale clean energy assets, including battery storage, data centers, and green hydrogen.

From pv magazine Global

Total corporate funding in the solar sector reached $16.6 billion in the first half of 2024, according to data released by Mercom Capital Group in its latest solar funding and merger and acquisition (M&A) report.

The total figure, which includes venture capital/private equity funding, public market, and debt financing, is 10% lower year on year than the $18.5 billion raised in the first half of 2023. However, the number of deals increased 9% year on year with 87 recorded in the first half of 2024, compared to 80 deals during the same period last year.

VC funding activity decreased 29% year on year in the first half of 2024, with $2.7 billion raised in 29 deals. Solar public market financing hit $1.7 billion across eight deals in the first half of 2024, down 75% from $6.7 billion across 14 deals in the first half of 2023.

Solar companies raised $12.2 billion across 50 debt financing deals in the first half of 2024, marking a 53% increase from the $8 billion raised in 33 deals during the first six months of 2023. According to Mercom Capital Group, this period represented the highest first-half total for solar debt financing in a decade.

“Financing activity in the solar sector remains restrained despite tailwinds from the Inflation Reduction Act and favorable global policies,” said Raj Prabhu, CEO of Mercom Capital Group.

Prabhu added that high interest rates, an uncertain rate trajectory and timeline, increasing trade barriers, supply chain challenges, concerns about the US presidential election’s impact on the sector, and constantly evolving trade policies have created an “unpredictable and uncertain climate … This has slowed down development, investments and decision-making.”

There were 40 solar M&A transactions in the first half of this year, down from 48 in the same period of 2023. The largest deal involved Canada’s Brookfield Asset Management acquiring a majority stake in French renewable company Neoen for over $6.5 billion.

People on the move: Swift Current Energy, Lightsource bp, WTS Energy, and more Job moves in solar, storage, cleantech, utilities and energy transition finance.

50 states of solar policy moves, Q2 2024 Q2 2024 saw 44 states plus the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico take a total of 182 distributed solar policy actions.

Grid operator PJM to start talks on regional transmission The nation’s largest grid operator told renewables trade groups that it will launch a transmission planning process ordered by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission.

Utah developer rPlus secures $1B in financing for 400 MW/1600 MWh solar-plus-storage project  The Green River Energy Center will supply power for PacifiCorp.

Peak Energy secures $55 million Series A funding to manufacture sodium-ion batteries The company plans to deliver its first systems in 2025 and open a full-scale production facility in 2027.

U.S. residential solar down 20% in 2024 A webinar hosted by Roth Capital Partners looked at the health of the residential solar market and forecasts for next year.

U.S. manufacturer Peak Energy announced it has secured a $55 million Series A funding round to scale production of grid-scale sodium-ion batteries.

The funding round was led by Xora Innovation, a investing platform of Temasek. The Series A also included participation from Eclipse, strategic partner TDK Ventures, and new investors Lachy Groom, Tishman Speyer, TechEnergy Ventures, Doral Energy-Tech Ventures and DETV-Scania Invest.

Sodium-ion batteries are a proven battery chemistry that offers some advantages in cost, supply chain security, and safety when compared with conventional lithium-ion batteries.

(Read: “Sodium-ion batteries – a viable alternative to lithium?”)

Peak Energy said sodium-ion batteries will help support the transition to renewable energy by storing and dispatching electricity from intermittent sources like solar and wind. With Wells Fargo forecasting a 20% increase in U.S. electricity demand by 2030 after a decade of flat demand, more storage is needed to ensure renewable energy can deliver reliable power when it is needed most, rather than relying on new natural gas reserve power.

“As energy demand grows, we must capitalize on the potential of renewables to provide dependable, inexpensive energy to fuel a new era of technological advancement. Utility-scale storage powered by sodium-ion is the answer to securing this future on a resilient, decarbonized grid,” said Landon Mossburg, chief executive officer, Peak Energy.

Peak Energy said the new capital will help it enter the next phase of growth, launching the first full-scale production of sodium-ion storage in the U.S. The company’s battery technology is set to be deployed with “a select group of six premier customers” in its pilot program in 2025. The customer base includes three of the five largest Independent Power Producers and electric utility companies in the nation.

The company launched from stealth less than a year ago with a $10 million seed round and the addition of Apple and Tesla veteran Liam O’Connor as co-founder and chief operations officer.

Peak Energy said it is on track to break ground on its first domestic “giga-scale” sodium ion battery in 2027.

Black Bear Energy, an onsite renewable energy developer, announced one of its customers, a real estate investment trust (REIT), has completed the sale of tax credits associated with its new solar assets.

The REIT sold Inflation Reduction Act created Investment Tax Credits (ITC), which can be transferred to third parties with a tax appetite in exchange for cash. The transaction was completed on a marketplace operated by Evergrow.

“By unlocking tax credit financing for REITs, Black Bear and Evergrow are forging a new path for improved returns that simultaneously support the commercial real estate sector’s sustainability objectives,” said said James Richards, chief executive officer of Evergrow.

The tax credits are generated from multiple projects installed on multifamily assets in California and Washington DC. The portfolio totals 556 kW and individual projects range in size from 66 kW to 195 kW. 

Black Bear Energy said the transaction will open doors for broader REIT participation in renewable energy projects and unlock monetization of the ITC. It said that prior to this transaction, it was unclear if there would be a market for REITs to sell tax credits, as the associated projects are magnitudes smaller than utility-scale project tax equity transactions. REITs also have special tax, accounting and business requirements that make knowledgeable partners important.

“With this transfer, we have proof of concept that demand exists for credits of this size and risk profile,” said Drew Torbin, founder and president of Black Bear Energy. “This is significant as the ITC sale proceeds typically increase the returns by 300 basis points and upwards of 600 basis points for certain projects which qualify for the 10% bonus adder.”

Tax equity, a financing arrangement where investors fund solar power projects in exchange for federal tax benefits like investment tax credits, is a complex field that integrates capital and labor.

Initial costs for assembling these deals can start under $100,000 but may quickly escalate to millions. These expenses, covering fees for lawyers, accountants, and engineers, support extensive review of data rooms and the drafting of extensive contracts, focusing on compliance and diligence. The objective is to ensure that large investment groups can safely deploy billions of dollars in compliance with the U.S. Internal Revenue Service regulations.

(Read: “Solar tax transfer for smaller projects: Dissecting a $600,000 tax credit transaction”)

University solar projects model institutional responsibility With a goal of achieving net neutrality by 2030, the University at Buffalo is not just generating clean energy with its solar installations, but serving as an example of how solar can become part of the landscape.

Public input sought for large-scale solar project in Arizona According to the application submitted by developer EDF Renewables, the proposed Socorro project will sit on 3,066 acres on nearly 6,000-acres of public land and it would produce up to 350 MW of solar energy along with battery energy storage.

U.S. household energy can wield 15 GW to affordably meet electricity demand A report from Deloitte showed how distributed energy resources (DER) can help the U.S. meet its climate goals while improving the functionality of the grid.

Google invests in Taiwanese solar developer New Green Power Google has made a capital investment in Taiwan-based New Green Power, in a deal that grants the U.S. company the rights to procure up to 300 MW of solar assets.

PV market eyes recovery amid falling module prices Martin Schachinger, founder of pvXchange.com, says that solar module prices are falling across the board, while batteries and inverters are hitting historically low prices due to market oversupply.

AEG unveils hybrid inverters for high-voltage PV systems The new three-phase hybrid inverter series includes five versions with power ratings of 6 kW to 15 kW. They feature efficiencies of up to 98.2% and a maximum input voltage of 1,000 V.

ESS Tech, listed on the New York Stock Exchange as “GWH”, announced it has secured a $50 million investment from the Export-Import Bank of The United States (EXIM).

The funds are expected to support the expansion of ESS production capacity at its Wilsonville, Oregon plant. The company develops long-duration energy storage iron flow batteries. The investment is expected to help ESS triple its manufacturing capacity at the Wilsonville plant.

“Our technology uses earth-abundant iron, salt and water to deliver environmentally safe solutions capable of providing up to 12 hours of flexible energy capacity for commercial and utility-scale energy storage applications,” said ESS Tech.

EXIM made the investment via its Make More in America Initiative, which makes available medium- and long-term loans, loan guarantees, and insurance to finance export-oriented domestic manufacturing projects.

ESS Tech is delivering iron flow energy storage systems to customers in Europe, Australia and Africa. The company manufactures 100% of its products in the United States, with a predominantly domestic supply chain that spans 29 states.

“Our partnership with EXIM underscores the critical role that American-made clean energy technology will play in the global clean energy transition,” said ESS chief executive officer Eric Dresselhuys. “ESS’s iron flow technology is already deployed in Australia and Europe and with this agreement, we are well positioned to meet the growing needs of our current and future global customers.” 

ESS battery systems are designed to operate for 25 years, while conventional batteries last about 7 to 10 years. The battery modules, electrolyte, plumbing, and other components may well last for decades longer with proper maintenance, said the company. The battery, for example, is expected to experience zero degradation over 20,000 cycles. The long duration energy storage (LDES) system can store and dispatch electricity for 12 hours or more.

According to the Department of Energy’s ‘Pathways to Commercial Liftoff: Long Duration Energy Storage’ report, the U.S. grid needs 225 to 460 GW of LDES capacity for power market application for a net zero economy by 2060. The global LDES market is estimated to be $50 billion per year and forecast to grow significantly with a cumulative investment of up to $3 trillion by 2040, according to the LDES Council and McKinsey & Co.

The Coalition for Community Solar Access (CCSA) released its Policy Roadmap that includes a guidebook, model legislation, inclusive solar access solutions for low-to-moderate income subscribers and consumer protection best practices. It’s intended to serve as a blueprint for states without competitive community solar programs to pass legislation that supports programs. It also provides insight into how to maximize federal funding.

“Our Roadmap boils down nearly a decade of the best lessons we’ve learned from creating community solar markets across the country into a succinct set of documents,” says Molly Knoll, Vice President of Policy, CCSA. “With many states exploring the development of new, or revamped, community solar programming and federal funds ready to deploy, this felt like the perfect time to release this helpful guide for all our advocates.”

The community solar is on the rise as it brings economic and social benefits to all Americans seeking local, clean community solar energy. By its design it lets people benefit from solar energy who may be unable to install solar either due to financial restrictions or because they do not have a suitable rooftop for solar.

Wood Mackenzie expects 7.6 GW of new community solar will come online in existing state markets between 2024 and 2028, and the national total of community solar installations is expected to pass 10 GW of cumulative capacity in 2026.

The CCSA’s aim with the Roadmap is to help the industry continue on the upward trajectory it’s currently experiencing, which requires strong programmatic and policy decisions.

The Roadmap’s release coincides with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is set to deploy $7 billion to state applicants through its Solar for All program, a funding opportunity that has a goal of bringing solar energy to low-income households. Recipients were chosen based on their proposals to develop programs designed to serve communities facing barriers to distributed solar deployment, with 100% of funding supporting low-income and disadvantaged communities in all 50 states the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico and territories.

Supporting low-income households

As recently shown in community solar programs and research reports from Wood Mackenzie and the Lawrence Berkeley National Lab  (LBNL) community solar has effectively expanded solar access to multifamily housing occupants, renters and low-income households. Based on a sample of 11 states, the LBNL study found that community solar adopters in 2023 were about 6.1 times more likely to live in multifamily buildings than rooftop solar adopters, 4.4 times more likely to rent, and earned 23% less annual income.

“The data speaks for itself: when states implement thoughtful policy programs that simplify income verification, billing, and expand access, we see immense growth in community solar adoption by low-to-moderate income households,” said Stephanie Burgos-Veras, senior manager of equity programs, CCSA. “We hope our Policy Solutions for Inclusive Solar Access primer can lead to more community solar programming being implemented — so that ultimately, more LMI households can benefit.”

The new CCSA Roadmap is intended to be used in conjunction with a companion document that provides Model Legislation for Community Solar Programs, that serves as a toolkit for policymakers to draft effective and sustainable community solar policies. The toolkit helps them tailor the program to community residents; kickstart the market with bill credit structure, oversight and administration; ensure long-term success by integrating community solar programs into existing utility and energy infrastructure of a state.

Also covered are potential challenges, the role of utilities, interconnection issues, program size and more. It also offers strategies to ensure that programs exist long into the future and continue to serve local residents.

Community solar legislation has been adopted in 19 states and the District of Columbia and multiple states have legislation in the works with nearly a dozen considering laws to create programs. Combined with the Solar For All program, CCSA believes that now is the time for policymakers to revisit the idea of bringing community solar to their state.

Find all the documents in the Policy Roadmap here under the “CCSA & Other Resources” tab.

Basis Climate has delivered an investment tax credit (ITC) transfer worth $600,000 for a 1.2 MW solar project, complete with a twelve-page transfer agreement plus requisite due diligence documentation. This transaction, facilitated under the new provisions of the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), signals a significant shift in the tax credit landscape, expanding access to smaller-scale solar projects.

Tax equity, a financing arrangement where investors fund solar power projects in exchange for federal tax benefits like investment tax credits, is a complex field that integrates capital and labor. Initial costs for assembling these deals can start under $100,000 but may quickly escalate to millions. These expenses, covering fees for lawyers, accountants, and engineers, support extensive review of data rooms and the drafting of extensive contracts, focusing on compliance and diligence. The objective is to ensure that large investment groups can safely deploy billions of dollars in compliance with the U.S. Internal Revenue Service regulations.

The introduction of the IRA brings about ITC transferability. This mechanism provides a less formal alternative to traditional tax equity, facilitating the use of solar ITCs by investors.

When pv magazine USA consulted tax equity professionals, now also working with transfers, at the Solar Energy Industries Association’s annual Finance, Tax, and Buyer’s Seminar in March about the potential for simpler “six- to eight-page” tax transfer contracts, their response was a mix of skepticism and amusement. Such brief documents would stand in stark contrast to the extensive documentation required for solar tax equity transactions due to their complexity and regulatory demands. Our sources indicate that shorter contract lengths would align better with those used in the movie industry, which also navigates its own tax credit processes.

In the past, even the smallest projects that attracted tax equity investors required $1 to $2 million in tax benefits to offset the $75,000 in fees. That landscape is now evolving.

Source: Basis Climate’s online portal

Basis Climate, an internet-based tax credit transfer platform, has closed nearly $250 million in deals and boasts a $2 billion pipeline across various technologies, including solar, energy storage, renewable natural gas, wind, and electric vehicle charging. Over the past month, the company has managed over $50 million in term sheets and offers, with more than $70 million in signed deals progressing towards closure.

WeWould Solar, a single-purpose entity providing ancillary power to on-site agricultural processing in Gainesville, Florida, partnered with Basis Climate on the $600,000 ITC sale. The project is for a net-metered, behind-the-meter solar power initiative within the utility region managed by the Clay Electric Cooperative. The transaction took place through Basis Climate’s website, with the ITC being acquired by Creditable Capital.

Derek Silverman, co-founder & chief product officer at Basis Climate, shared insights with pv magazine USA.

The project is slated for development in three phases, each anticipated to be 1.2 MW. Notably, since the initial phase was under 1 MWac, it was exempt from prevailing wage or apprenticeship requirements. The installation will use SMA Sunny High Power PEAK3 inverters, Canadian Solar bifacial BiHiKu 425 W modules, and TerraSmart’s Glade Wave racking.

Source: WeWouldSolar energy monitoring dashboard

Creditable has disclosed that it is underwriting ITC transfer transactions targeting a 10% to 15% return on investment, net of fees and expenses, for its investors. For a $600,000 transaction, with limited information available, a return in this range suggests that Creditable Capital paid approximately 85 to 87 cents on the dollar. This payment rate is at the lower end of the typical industry range, where 90 to 95 cents on the dollar is common for larger solar power projects involving investment-grade asset owners and sophisticated development and construction firms.

First Solar, meanwhile, received 97 cents on the dollar when it sold its manufacturing tax credits.

Risk management

Silverman highlighted that the project’s diligence covered approximately 20 key areas, including organizational documents, project design, construction plans, operational strategies, insurance placement, and project valuation and qualification. Finalizing these core areas early helped Creditable Capital concentrate on higher-risk aspects, such as determining the project’s eligible basis and mitigating recapture risks, which involve the risk of having to return tax benefits if the project fails to comply with regulatory requirements.

For projects where asset owners lack strong financial foundations, buyers commonly secure tax insurance to safeguard against recapture risk. This insurance also provides a financial safety net, known as a backstop indemnity, in case the project’s liabilities exceed its assets. In the case of Creditable, the financial guarantees provided by the asset owner were sufficient, eliminating the need for tax insurance. However, when sellers lack a robust balance sheet, buyers generally obtain tax insurance to ensure comprehensive protection.

Adam Stern, founding partner of Creditable Capital, commented on their funding strategy, stating:

Creditable is getting more comfortable with the funding at a point in time after diligence is completed with a holdback for the IRS registration. Creditable, through its investors and financial institution relationships, is working to provide bridge loans on projects that it is buying the credits for.

A lingering risk in these transactions is how the IRS will require buyers and sellers to verify aspects of the deal, such as the determination of the basis.

Determining the appropriate ITC is a complex process due to the US Internal Revenue Service’s (IRS) detailed and evolving definitions of what constitutes an eligible project ‘basis’. For example, essential infrastructure like fences and roads, required by code for project deployment, are not considered part of the eligible basis, thus not qualifying for the 30% ITC. Similarly, interconnection costs had been excluded until recent changes under the IRA, which now allows projects under 5 MWac to include these costs in their ITC calculations.

In the traditional tax equity market, buyers of ITC needed to demonstrate significant involvement in the solar projects, taking on considerable operational and developmental risks, and ensuring long-term revenue from the projects flowed to them through complex financing arrangements. Some of requirements have been relaxed, although thorough due diligence and responsible investment practices remain essential.

A community solar project developed by Wunder Power in Maryland, part of an ITC sale facilitated by Basis in 2023. Image: Basis Climate.

Leading residential solar industry financers and the Solar Energy Industry Association (SEIA) are partnering with the newly launched Recheck, a platform designed to create a registry of residential solar salespeople and vet their conduct.

Residential solar has long struggled with aggressive sales tactics that has led to negative customer experiences. Many installers outsource their sales efforts to a third party, which can create a disconnect between sales promises and installation realities.

The platform was launched by a consortium of the main players in U.S. residential solar finance, including Dividend Finance, Freedom Forever, GoodLeap, Mosaic, Palmetto,  Sungage Financial, Sunlight Financial, and Sunrun.

“A healthy solar industry is vital to consumers and the U.S. energy transition. Recheck is proud of its founding partners and is committed to building the tools to ensure long-term trust with consumers,” said Tim Trefren, Recheck co-founder and CEO.

Recheck creates an online registry of approved solar salespeople, issuing a Recheck ID that allows contractors, financiers, and technology platforms to confirm that their sales partners meet certification, licensing, and training requirements.

The platform marks a first-of-its-kind opportunity for solar finance, contractor, and technology partners to track sales conduct across the industry.

Recheck will also facilitate industry-wide data exchange across the platform. The data will businesses vet sales partners, prevent poor practices by unregistered salespeople, and identify individuals with a history of consumer protection violations that move from company to company.

“Solar remains America’s most popular form of energy and will be installed on 10 million homes by 2030. It’s our job to make sure the solar and storage industry is accountable to the millions of families that are putting their trust in us to power their lives,” said SEIA president and chief executive officer Abigail Ross Hopper.

Recheck founding partners will be part of an ongoing advisory board and have committed to driving the adoption of Recheck IDs within their platforms in 2024 and beyond.

Along with supporting the launch of Recheck, SEIA is developing industry wide standards for residential solar, with accreditation from the American National Standards Institute. SEIA is proactively tackling issues that build confidence among customers, regulators, investors, rating agencies, and other stakeholders. These standards will contribute assurance that solar and storage systems have been ethically, sustainably, and responsibly sourced, manufactured, transported, installed, operated, and recycled.

Aiko presents ABC solar module with world record efficiency of 25.2% at Intersolar The Chinese back contact module maker said its new products rely on the company’s all-back-contact (ABC) cell technology and feature a temperature coefficient of -0.26% per C.

People on the move: Amp Energy, Deriva Energy, Atwell LLC, and more Job moves in solar, storage, cleantech, utilities and energy transition finance.

Arizona’s largest energy storage project closes $513 million in financing The 1,200 MWh Papago Storage project will dispatch enough power to serve 244,000 homes for four hours a day with the e-Storage SolBank high-cycle lithium-ferro-phosphate battery energy storage solution. 

Scientists develop silver-free PEDOT:PSS adhesive for shingled solar cells Researchers from the University of California, San Diego (UCSD) have developed a new silver-free adhesive for shingled solar cells. The novel adhesive is based the PEDOT:PSS polymer and can reportedly reduce silver consumption to approximately 6.3 mg/W.

Longi launches ultra-black HPBC solar modules for residential applications The Chinese manufacturer said its new Hi-MO X6 Artist series has an efficiency of up to 22.3% and a power output ranging from 420 W to 430 W. The smaller version is currently priced at CNY 298 ($41.7)/m2 and the largest model is sold at CNY 268/m2.

Nextracker acquires solar foundation specialist Ojjo for $119 million Ojjo makes a unique truss system that reportedly uses half the steel of a conventional foundation and a design that minimizes grading requirements.

Recurrent Energy, a subsidiary of Canadian Solar Inc. has secured $513 million in project financing for its Papago Storage project located in Maricopa County, Arizona.

The 1,200 MWh Papago Storage, which will be the largest energy storage project in Arizona, is expected to begin operations in the third quarter of 2024, with commercial operations slated for the second quarter of 2025. Once operational, the project is expected to dispatch enough power for approximately 244,000 homes for four hours every day.

The Papago battery energy storage systems (BESS) project will use e-Storage’s SolBank, a containerized, proprietary battery energy storage solution designed and manufactured for utility-scale applications. SolBank, which was announced at RE+ in Anaheim in 2022, uses high-cycle lithium-ferro-phosphate (LFP) batteries with a 2.8 MWh energy capacity.

Recurrent Energy, owner of the project, secured a 20-year tolling agreement with Arizona Public Service (APS) for the energy storage project, under which the utility pays for the right to charge and discharge the battery when it needs to.

MUFG and Nord/LB acted as coordinating lead arrangers for the Papago Storage project financing. The financing includes a $249 million construction and term loan, a $163 million tax equity bridge loan, and a $101 million letter of credit facility. Joint lead arrangers for the transaction included Bank of America, CoBank, DNB, Rabobank, Siemens Financial Services, and Zions.

“Today, we are thrilled to see nearly a decade of planning culminate in the financing of what will be the largest energy storage project in Arizona,” said Ismael Guerrero, CEO of Recurrent Energy. “We appreciate the continued support from our partners Nord/LB and MUFG in our shared mission to advance the clean energy transition.”

Last April Canadian Solar rebranded its wholly owned global energy subsidiary as Recurrent Energy. This segment develops both stand-alone solar and stand-alone battery storage projects, as well as hybrid solar-plus-storage projects. To date, Recurrent Energy has delivered more than 10 GWp of solar power projects and 3.3 GWh of energy storage projects, with a global project development pipeline of 26 GWp and 56 GWh for solar and energy storage respectively, the company reports. In North America, Recurrent Energy is developing a pipeline of 6.3 GWp of solar projects and 18.9 GWh of battery energy storage projects.

From pv magazine 6/24

The Invesco Solar exchange-traded fund (ETF) underperformed compared to other stock indexes in April 2024. The solar ETF was down 11% and the S&P 500 and DJIA decreased 4%. That fall followed a 3% gain for the Invesco Solar ETF in March 2024.

The top three performing April 2024 solar-related stocks in the United States were Atlantica Sustainable Infrastructure plc, up 5%; First Solar, Inc. up 3%; and Clearway Energy, Inc., up 1%. The three worst were Maxeon Solar Technologies, falling 39%; Daqo New Energy Corp., down 32%; and SunPower Corp., down 29%.

Residential solar stocks dropped 18% in April 2024, having dropped 2% in March 2024. This extended the 2024 fall for residential solar stocks to 44%. The companies in this measure are Enphase Energy Inc., SolarEdge Technologies., Sunnova Energy International Inc., and Sunrun Inc.

The situation was similar for utility scale solar equipment stocks, down 15% in April 2024 and 22% year to date. The companies in this measure are Array Technologies Inc., Shoals Technologies Group Inc., NEXTracker Inc., FTC Solar Inc., and First Solar Inc.

Independent power producers (IPP) fared better than utility scale or solar stocks. IPPs were down 8% for April 2024 and 22% year to date. This was despite poor performances from Emeren Group Ltd. (-22%) and Altus Power, Inc. (-24%).

The U.S. solar industry is experiencing a gray market for discounted Enphase products, fueled by large installers and rising competition from other microinverter brands. Chinese manufacturers are pricing and financing utility scale battery storage, challenging international firms.

For utility scale projects, rising module prices and uncertainty about retroactive duties are causing delays. Some firms have reassessed plans. Distributors are hesitant to take on new stock, leading to slower inventory clearance, contributing to market disruption. Within the IPP sector there has been an uptick in merger and acquisition activity, however.

Princeton NuEnergy (PNE), a New Jersey-based specialist in lithium-ion battery direct recycling, announced the close a Series A funding round with a strategic investment from Samsung Venture Investment Corporation.

Founded out of Princeton University in 2019, PNE developed a patented direct recycling technology for lithium-ion batteries. The low-temperature plasma-assisted separation process, trademarked as LPAS, produces battery-grade cathode and anode materials suitable for direct reintroduction into cell manufacturing. The company reports that this recycling is done at half the cost and is 70% less energy intensive.

PNE is now commercializing its lithium-ion battery recycling process that the company reports recovers up to 95% of materials found in all lithium-ion battery chemistries.

Recovering lithium and other critical battery materials is important as the U.S. ramps up electric vehicle produciton. While the U.S. is making strides toward manufacturing batteries, it is behind in the race for raw materials as China reportedly holds the majority of the world’s lithium refining capacity.

To advance lithium battery recycling, PNE has received over $55 million in grants, strategic and venture funding including investments from Honda Motor Co. Ltd., LKQ Corporation, Samsung Venture, Shell Venture, Traxys Group, Wistron Corporation, and the U.S. Department of Energy.

Investor demand for this 50% oversubscribed round brought PNE’s Series A total to $30 million. Samsung Venture and Helium-3 join the round’s previous investors. The funds will support construction of PNE’s first standalone, full-scale direct battery recycling advanced manufacturing facility.

“The incredible interest in our Series A round, capped off by a strategic investment from Samsung Venture Investment Corporation and Helium-3 Ventures, speaks to the importance of supporting a circular economy for lithium battery manufacturing here in the U.S.,” said Dr. Chao Yan, PNE’s co-founder and CEO. “This funding enables us to implement and demonstrate our capabilities at commercial scale, helping America meet the growing demand for high-performance batteries while also creating high-quality clean energy jobs.”

PNE was named to Time Magazine’s “America’s Top Greentech Companies 2024”

New York State’s “Renewable Optimization and Energy Storage Innovation Program” is dedicating $5 million to support long duration energy storage (LDES) projects, with project applications due by September 24, 2024 at 3 PM EST. This funding, administered by the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA), targets innovative solutions capable of delivering energy storage for durations of 10 to 100 hours, within the specified technical categories:

1. Electrochemical:
   • Including flow batteries and advanced battery solutions
2. Mechanical
   • Innovative pumped hydro and compressed air/gas solutions
   • Mechanical/gravity energy storage
   • Geomechanical energy storage
3. Thermal
   • Pumped heat electrical energy storage
   • Thermophotovoltaic (TPV) storage
   • Innovative mediums such as water, sand, molten salts, and rocks

Now in its third iteration, the program finances up to 50% of each approved project’s cost. It prioritizes projects that tackle renewable integration challenges like grid congestion, hosting capacity constraints, and the siting limitations of lithium-ion batteries in New York City. NYSERDA seeks to support technologies that are not yet commercially scaled and are still in developmental stages. Eligible expenses include product development and demonstration projects.

Additionally, the application package stipulates that companies receiving awards must not conduct business in or with Russia.

Proposal evaluation criteria

The proposal scoring criteria lists twenty-eight questions, including:

• Is the proposed work technically feasible, innovative, and superior to existing alternatives?
• Are the fundamental scientific principles well understood and clearly articulated?
• Does the proposed solution have strong potential for commercialization, addressing demonstrated customer needs and significant market opportunities?
• Is there an appropriate plan for performance monitoring and data analysis included in the proposal?
• To what extent will there be economic benefits in New York State in the form of subsequent commercial activity and economic growth?
• How widely can the technology be deployed, both in New York and globally?
• How realistic is the schedule for achieving the goals of the proposed project?
• How significant is the commercial potential of this technology?

This funding round follows significant investments in previous years. In the summer of 2023, four demonstration projects received nearly $4 million. Ecolectro was granted just over $1 million to advance sustainable hydrogen technologies; Form Energy received $1.2 million for their iron flow batteries; Polyjule deployed a 167 kW/2 MWh plastic-based battery with slightly over $1 million; and Urban Power was awarded about $700,000 to develop a 100 kW/1 MWh zinc battery.

In 2022, Borrego Solar, JC Solution, Nine Mile Point Nuclear Station, Power to Hydrogen, and Roccera were awarded $16.6 million to develop long-duration energy storage solutions. This funding effort was part of a broader initiative that began in 2020, when New York embarked on a project with Zinc8 to develop long-duration zinc energy storage. Following successful development, Zinc8 decided to manufacture its zinc-air batteries in New York State.

As shown in chart above, New York targets significant energy storage milestones by 2050: achieving 10.4 GW over four hours (41.2 GWh) and 6.7 GW over eight hours (53.6 GWh), pushing toward a total of nearly 100 GWh in bulk energy storage. Yet, as of early 2023, despite its mention in the state’s energy roadmap, New York has not quantified energy storage capacities exceeding ten hours.

Swift Solar announced the close of its $27 million Series A financing round, which follows on the heels of a $7 million award from the Department of Energy under the Advancing U.S. Thin-Film Solar Photovoltaics funding program.

The company, founded in 2017 is a spinout of MIT, Stanford University and the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), and specializes in perovskite tandem photovoltaics. The new technology combines metal halide perovskites with silicon or other perovskites to make tandem cells that have higher efficiency than traditional solar cells.

The $27 million funding round was co-led by Eni Next and Fontinalis Partners. Also joining the round are new and existing investors including Stanford University, Good Growth Capital, BlueScopeX, HL Ventures, Toba Capital, Sid Sijbrandij, James Fickel, Adam Winkel, Fred Ehrsam, Jonathan Lin, and Climate Capital.

The $7 million DOE funding is part of a $71 million investment, including $16 million from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, which supports research, development and demonstration projects in order to help grow the domestic solar supply chain. Swift Solar was one of four awardees that are working on tandem PV devices that pair established PV technologies like silicon and copper indium gallium diselenide (CIGS) with perovskites.

In total, Swift Solar has raised $44 million to scale its technology as it prepares to break ground on its first manufacturing facility.

“Solar is the future of energy—not just clean energy,” said Joel Jean, co-founder and CEO of Swift Solar. “Our advanced perovskite solar cells can outperform anything currently available on the market.”

A novel vapor deposition technology may help it to accelerate the manufacture of its tandem solution. The new method is a non-batch process that solves two problems associated with the use of established vapor processing in perovskite material manufacturing – the slow speed of deposition and the non-continuous nature of batch processing.

“Our deposition approach allows for the continuous deposition of a fully absorbing perovskite material within less than five minutes,” corresponding author Tobias Abzieher from Swift Solar, a U.S.-based perovskite PV startup, told pv magazine. “Solar cells prepared with these materials also outperform previously realized efficiencies of vapor processed inorganic perovskite solar cells significantly.”

In its announcement, Swift Solar noted that perovskite solar cell production uses less material and less energy, which should drive down manufacturing costs and carbon pollution, potentially decreasing the cost of solar by up to 30%. “The perovskite supply chain could be based entirely in the United States and aligned countries, creating a major opportunity to expand domestic manufacturing,” according to Swift.

Swift Solar’s initial products will be designed for integration in high-performance solar-powered products such as on car rooftops or space-based satellites, and the company says it will also serve traditional solar customers.

Swift Solar was recently named one of TIME’s Top GreenTech Companies in America. In April, The Solar Energy Manufacturers for America (SEMA) Coalition announced the Swift Solar was a new member.

This article was amended to remove mention of company developing rooftop product.

Giraffe Financial announces the launch of a service that aims to make Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) tax credits accessible to underserved small- and medium-sized businesses and tax-exempt organizations such as local governments, schools, and nonprofits.

The IRA represents over $1 trillion in tax credits to accelerate the adoption of clean energy technologies in the U.S.; however, the complexities are as vast as the opportunities. With transferable tax credits value projected to grow to as much as $100 billion by 2032, according to Giraffe, smaller companies may be challenged to tap into those benefits.

In addition, direct pay issues were finalized in April, enabling non-profits such as schools and churches reap incentives for clean energy investments. Giraff intends to help non-profits navigate the process of accessing these credits.

“We built Giraffe to address the paradox that many of the organizations the IRA is intended to support are the least equipped to take advantage of it; we’re bringing IRA tax credits within reach for a broader audience,” said Giraffe co-founder and CEO Jason Prince. “We’re making tax credits far more accessible for entities that don’t have the wherewithal to become tax experts themselves.”

Giraffe is an AI-powered, end-to-end online tax preparation solution that intends to help users understand their likely eligibility and estimate the value of their tax credit. The program will also help companies and non-profits follow all rules in order to stay in compliance. And it will help potential direct-pay recipients to aggregate, insure and sell credits that they’ve obtained.

Help is available for renewable energy and energy storage investments as well as EV and EV charging purchases.

Giraffe is currently working with a partner in the private sector, Cummins, which supports dealers that are electrifying bus fleets. As each dealer has to navigate grant, rebate and tax incentives for their own business, Giraffe is providing those dealers with guidance and expertise so they can take full advantage of all opportunities.

Other customers include Butte Valley Unified School District, Weed Union Elementary, EVC Holdings, FuSE, Bird Bus, and EV charging solution providers like SWTCH, Skycharger, and XCharge.

“When we were first introduced to Giraffe, we were excited to hear that they could helpus secure tax credits that would effectively reduce our out-of-pocket costs to $0 as we moved to purchase electric school buses and the associated charging infrastructure,”

“There are many benefits to having electric vehicle charging stations at a business or other property, yet implementation can be costly and complex,” said Dan Coyne, founder and partner, EVC Holdings. “Giraffe is making the important IRS tax credit component significantly easier for its customers.”

Giraffe was spun out of the Momentum X climate finance venture studio, and it is backed by its two parent companies, Momentum and Skyview Ventures. The $1.5 million pre-seed venture capital funding round was led by Skyview Ventures with participation from angel investors representing leading EV OEM, EV charging, AI, carbon, and environmental commodity organizations.

The U.S. Department of Energy announced a $38 million funding opportunity via its Solar Energy Technologies Office (SETO), supporting research, development, and demonstration projects related to the solar energy supply chain. 

The funds are intended to support projects that de-risk solar hardware, manufacturing processes, and software products. The funding opportunities also seeks projects that provide outreach, education, or technology development for software that delivers an automated permit review and approval process for rooftop solar and/or energy storage. 

“These investments will help accelerate the growth of the solar industry, identify emerging opportunities, and drive down costs for our domestic energy market, positioning the United States on the leading edge of solar industry advances,” said DOE. 

Eligible technologies include PV, systems integration, concentrating solar-thermal power, technologies that connect solar with storage or electric vehicles. It also considers dual-use projects like agrivoltaics and vehicle-integrated photovoltaics. 

Topic areas: 

1. Solar Research and Technology Development 

DOE will support five to ten projects receiving $1 million to $2 million each. The topic area focuses on R&D projects for for-profit companies improving and de-risking solar components and/or manufacturing processes. Successful project submissions will develop and validate realistic pathways to commercial success. 

2. Solar Energy Demonstration 

Five to ten research, development, and demonstration projects will receive between $1 million and $5 million for established companies or startups to develop pilot-scale or prototype demonstration of solar products. Successful applicants for this topic area will have an existing prototype that requires further testing, engineering work, or demonstration in a controlled environment. 

3. Solar Permitting, Outreach, Education 

One to three projects receive between $1 million to $5 million for outreach, education, and software development activities for automated code-compliant rooftop solar permitting software. The projects are designed for use by solar installers to submit permit applications to local governments and to automate review and approval. 

DOE will hold an informational webinar on the funding opportunity on June 13, 2024. 

Link to Apply: Apply on EERE Exchange 

U.S. scientists develop air-bridge thermophotovoltaic cells with 44% efficiency  U.S. scientists have developed a thermophotovoltaic cell that could be paired with inexpensive thermal storage to provide power on demand. The indium gallium arsenide (InGaAs) thermophotovoltaic cell absorbs most of the in-band radiation to generate electricity, while serving as a nearly perfect mirror.

Guaranteed and transferable tax benefits will make the PV industry too big to fail  Trina Solar executive says policies in the Inflation Reduction Act will make or break the future of solar in the U.S.

Largest solar project in Wyoming moves forward  The $1.2 billion Cowboy solar project will be built by Enbridge, with 771 MW expected to be fully operational by 2027.

21 states accept the grid modernization challenge The Federal-State Modern Grid Deployment initiative aims to shore up the U.S. energy grid to prepare for both challenges and opportunities in the power sector.

Battery energy storage tariffs tripled; domestic content rules updated Breaking down U.S. market impacts on energy storage from recent policy changes with insights from Clean Energy Associates.

Texas is the proving ground for a new way of electric grid operation Texas is uniquely suited to adopt virtual power plant technology due to its competitive, deregulated market. Its success highlights the “perverse incentive” of vertically integrated utilities in other states to make capital expenditures without discretion to raise profits.

The Federal-State Modern Grid Deployment Initiative received commitments from 21 states. The program aims to bring together states, federal entities and power sector stakeholders to help modernize the U.S. power grid in order to meet an onslaught of both challenges and opportunities the sector will face in coming years.

The 21 states include Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawai‘i, Illinois, Kentucky, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Washington, and Wisconsin.

These states have committed to prioritizing efforts to adopt modern grid solutions to expand grid capacity and build modern grid capabilities on both new and existing transmission and distribution lines.

“American economic competitiveness globally relies on access to low-cost, reliable power. The Federal-State Modern Grid Deployment Initiative announced earlier today and already supported by 21 states, is meaningful progress toward the upgraded and better-connected transmission system that lies at the heart of the vision of ACORE’s Macro Grid Initiative,” said Ray Long, President and CEO of the American Council on Renewable Energy (ACORE). “This announcement builds on the commendable commitment to upgrade 100,0000 miles of existing transmission lines by utilizing public-private partnerships to deploy readily available technologies, such as grid enhancing technologies and high-performance conductors.

U.S. power grid used today was built in the 1960s and 70s. The aging grid struggles to handle the extreme weather events caused by climate change, let alone the renewable energy needed to meet energy goals. According to the U.S. Department of Energy, 70% of transmission lines are over 25 years old and approaching the end of their typical lifecycle.

In the past, expanding the capacity of the U.S. power grid had relied on building new transmission lines with technologies that have not changed since the mid-twentieth century. However, with today’s new modern grid technologies such as high-performance conductors and grid-enhancing technologies enable double or more the amount of power than is handled on today’s transmission lines, the grid can be upgraded quickly and in a cost effective manner compared to constructing new transmission lines.

States can receive technical and analytical assistance from the U.S. Climate Alliance. In conjunction the Department of Energy(DOE) has many technical assistance programs that aim to support analysis for utilities, policy makers, regulators, state energy offices, and other stakeholders.

Funding to help states deploy advanced grid technologies is made possible through the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) and Bipartisan Infrastructure Law (BIL). For example, the DOE’s Grid Deployment Office is administering $10.5 billion in competitive grant funding through the Grid Resilience and Innovation Partnerships (GRIP) Program.

The DOE Loan Programs Office has $250 billion of loan guarantee authority to provide low-interest financing to projects that upgrade existing energy infrastructure, with program guidance that highlights reconductoring as a qualifying project example. The Department of Agriculture’s Empowering Rural America (New ERA) program provides $9.7 billion in low interest loans or grants and represents the largest investment in rural electrification since 1936, with eligibility for transmission system upgrades.

Funding is also available through the Grid Resilience and Innovation Partnership (GRIP) program, which recently closed applications for up to $2.7 billion in DOE grant funding under a second round. The intention of the program is to fund projects that will upgrade and modernize the transmission and distribution system to increase reliability and resilience to prepare the grid for extreme weather as well as to ensure delivery of affordable, clean electricity to all communities across the nation.

Grid-enhancing technologies (GETs) were cited by an RMI study as potentially capable of saving project developers collectively hundreds of millions of dollars in interconnection costs compared to default network upgrades, while the project-level savings “could be the difference” that allows a developer to build a project instead of dropping out of the queue. The study notes that GETs can also be installed more quickly than other network upgrades.

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) recently issued a final rule on Regional Transmission Planning and Cost Allocation, Order 1920, which adopts requirements for how transmission providers must conduct long-term planning for regional transmission facilities, consider the use of advanced conductors and Grid Enhancing Technologies.

The Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA) has been involved with this rulemaking proceeding over the past two years, advocating for reforms to the transmission planning process to account for all the benefits that clean energy offers.

“We’re pleased FERC took several steps to improve America’s outdated transmission system, including following SEIA’s recommendations requiring transmission providers to engage in long-term regional planning,” said Melissa Alfano, senior director of energy markets and counsel for SEIA.

Renewable energy developer Ørsted announced it has secured a $680 million tax equity financing for a portfolio of solar and storage assets in Texas and Arizona.

The project portfolio includes Eleven Mile Solar Center, a 300 MW solar and 300 MW /1200 MWh storage project in Pinal County, Arizona and Sparta Solar, a 250 MW solar project in Mineral, Texas.

J.P. Morgan made the tax equity investment, comprised of production tax credit (PTC) and investment tax credit (ITC) assets available through the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA). Over 1.8 GW of Ørsted’s 5.7 GW portfolio is now supported by the investment bank.

The Eleven Mile Solar Center will receive a one-time investment tax credit for its battery storage system while the solar farm will generate production tax credits over a ten-year period.

The tax equity partnership includes options for tax credit transferability, a new option created by IRA. Tax credit transfers opened a new market for any corporate buyer to support clean energy projects and optimize their federal tax bill through purchasing tax credits.

“With this new market unlocked by the IRA, we’re excited to continue our tax equity partnership with J.P. Morgan and bring on new entities looking to advance the U.S. renewable energy industry, support job growth, and promote local economic development,” said James Giamarino, chief commercial officer for the Americas, Ørsted.

Latham & Watkins LLP served as legal counsel for Ørsted and Milbank LLP served as legal counsel for J.P. Morgan.

The tax equity investment is expected to help complete the two projects which total 550 MW solar capacity and 300 MW, 4-hour duration energy storage. Commercial operations for both projects are expected for 2024. The solar projects are expected to contribute a combined $125 million in tax revenue over the life of the projects for public services in the local communities.

SunPower announced it will now be offering Tesla Powerwall 3 as part of its portfolio of residential solar and storage products.

“Homeowners are increasingly turning to battery storage to protect themselves against ongoing utility rate hikes and grid outages. We witnessed record-breaking battery storage sales in 2024 and see a future where almost all solar systems are paired with storage,” said Shawn Fitzgerald, SVP corporate development and product strategy at SunPower.

Tesla launched the Powerwall 3 in 2024 after it was unveiled at the RE+ trade e show in September 2023. It has the same storage capacity as the Powerwall 2 (13.5 kWh) but a key differentiator is that it can provide at least 50% more power at 11.5 kW of continuous power. It is a hybrid battery with the solar and battery inverter fully integrated, and is designed for new solar installations as opposed to retrofits. Some of the innovations over the Powerwall 2 are that it is reportedly easier to install, and it is smaller and lighter, while slightly deeper.

“Pairing Tesla Powerwall 3 with our industry-leading SunPower Equinox solar system was a natural progression in offering homeowners the best products on the market.” Fitzgerald said.

According to a report by Wood Mackenzie, one in every four American homeowners who install rooftop solar this year will also add battery storage. Reasons include resiliency as well as changes in net metering policy such as California’s  NEM 3.0, which cut payments for exported solar energy by about 75%.

Powerwall was the choice in over half of home battery installations last year, according to Wood Mackenzie.

“Expanding access to Tesla Powerwall 3 allows us to offer homeowners a comprehensive energy solution under one roof including sales, financing and installation,” said Joe Holstein, owner of SunPower by Quality Home Services, a SunPower Master Dealer.

SunPower Financial reported it has expanded its suite of solar financing options to include loan and lease financing through Mosaic for Tesla battery installations. SunPower reports that qualified customers can finance a Powerwall 3 with no down payment.

SunPower specializes in residential solar installations, a market that has been hard hit by rising interest rates and policy changes such as NEM 3.0 In April SunPower announced it planned to close business segments as it restructures to lower costs. At the time the company’s stock was trading 96% lower than all-time highs and was down 86% over the past year.

SunPower’s revenues reported last December reflected a 28% year-over-year decline, while operating expenses increased, and net income resulted in a loss of $123.9 million. The company said that after a short transition period, all project pipeline operations from pre-installation through system activation would be conducted by Blue Raven Solar and other installation partners and SunPower certified dealers.

Qcells, a leading residential solar panel provider in the U.S. market, announced its solar project financing platform, called EnFin, secured its first asset backed securities (ABS) transaction. The transaction totals $252.86 million and comprises bonds backed by thousands of consumer loans used to finance residential solar installations.

RBC Capital Markets acted as the sole structuring advisor and bookrunner, and Santander served as co-manager in the transaction.

“EnFin is the only financing platform in the market backed by a major manufacturer, and we benefit from Qcells’ trusted reputation for high-quality equipment and its significant investment to build a sustainable solar supply chain in the U.S.,” said Alex Kaplan, EnFin president and chief executive officer.

The ABS transaction adds to two revolving credit warehouse transactions totaling $500 million of committed capacity. The first warehouse was closed with RBC in April 2023 and the second with Santander in January 2024, each for $250 million.

EnFin is a wholly owned subsidiary of Qcells. It began pilot lending operations in the second half of 2022 and officially launched in January 2023. Since then, it has accumulated about 18,000 consumer loan contracts with an aggregate principal balance of more than $800 million.

Loans under the EnFin program are made through a partnership with Hatch Bank, which extends access to a national lending charter that has enabled EnFin to be active in 46 states and the District of Columbia.

Qcells’ unique investment in a solar finance platform opens new opportunities for customers. For example, homeowners can benefit from a 30-year performance warranty option on Qcells modules when financed through the platform.

“Providing competitive financing for solar and battery storage systems is part of Qcells’ long-term strategy to become a one-stop shop and offer a full suite of clean energy solutions to the market,” said Qcells.

In January 2024 EnFin launched a third-party ownership financing option, providing power purchase agreement and lease options to customers. 

“It’s exciting to see Qcells grow in the residential solar financing space,” said Justin Lee, chief executive officer, Qcells. “This first ABS transaction truly reflects investor confidence and showcases EnFin as a unique value proposition.”

The U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Loan Programs Office (LPO) announced a conditional commitment to Plug Power’s subsidiary, Plug Power Energy Loan Borrower, for a loan guarantee of up to $1.66 billion to help finance the construction of up to six clean hydrogen facilities across several states.

Clean or “green” hydrogen differs from traditional “blue” hydrogen, by using renewable energy sources such as solar and wind rather than fossil fuel-based electricity.

Advancing clean hydrogen is a key component of the Biden-Harris Administration’s plan to build a robust clean energy economy. To advance clean hydrogen the administration created an inter-agency hydrogen task force  to deploy a more holistic, “whole of government approach” to clean hydrogen across the administration.

Clean hydrogen has potential in industries that would otherwise be hard to decarbonize, including heavy-duty transportation.  A year ago, the Biden-Harris Administration put out a National Clean Hydrogen Strategy and Roadmap, outlining opportunities for the U.S. to domestically produce 10 million metric tonnes (MMT) of clean hydrogen annually by the end of the decade, 20 MMT annually by 2040, and 50 MMT annually by 2050.

In October, the DOE announced funding of $7 billion to launch seven regional clean hydrogen hubs around the country, each aimed at more broadly supporting the commercial-scale deployment of the resource. The funding for the hubs comes from the 2021 Bipartisan Infrastructure Law. All seven hubs are estimated to produce a joint three million metric tons of hydrogen each year, and slash 25 million metric tons of carbon dioxide emissions every year.

This loan guarantee to Plug, if finalized, will support an estimated 100 to 300 jobs during the construction period when at full capacity, and at least 50 new full-time jobs for each location.

Plug has a development pipeline that includes the build-out of clean hydrogen facilities in several potential locations across the United States to supply its national customer base with end-to-end clean hydrogen at scale.

Plug’s hydrogen generation network reached significant milestones early in 2024. Its plants in Georgia and Tennessee produced at nameplate capacity, with a combined liquid hydrogen production capacity of 25 tons-per-day (TPD). Additionally, Plug’s Louisiana plant is expected to be completed and begin producing this year, adding 15 TPD and bringing the Company’s total liquid hydrogen production capacity to 40 TPD. If finalized, the loan funding will support an integrated and resilient commercial scale clean hydrogen fueling network across several regions of the United States.

The clean hydrogen facilities will use Plug’s own electrolyzer stacks that are manufactured at the company’s state-of-the-art gigafactory in Rochester, N.Y. Plug is among the leading commercial-scale manufacturers of electrolyzers in the United States and currently operates the largest Proton Exchange Membrane (PEM) electrolyzer system in the United States at its Georgia hydrogen plant.

Electrolyzers use electricity to split water into its component parts, hydrogen and oxygen. Plug’s PEM technology reportedly allows it to operate efficiently even with variable electricity, enabling it to leverage electricity from intermittent renewables. Electrolyzers that use renewables to power their hydrogen production produce emissions-free clean hydrogen. The electrolyzer stacks can be easily configured to produce systems at 1 MW, 5 MW and 10 MW scales.

The hydrogen fuel from the project is expected to power fuel cell-electric vehicles used in the material handling, transportation, and industrial sectors, resulting in an estimated 84% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions compared to conventional blue hydrogen production.

The benefits of harnessing hydrogen fuel cells in applications such as material handling equipment include enhanced operational efficiency, reduced environmental impact through zero-emission operations, and increased productivity due to faster refueling times compared to conventional batteries. Major corporations such as Amazon, Walmart, and Home Depot use Plug’s hydrogen fuel cells across their warehouse and distribution centers.

Plug is expected to develop and ultimately implement a strong Community Benefits Plan for each project and has committed to working with local communities for project siting, including soliciting input from local economic development corporations.

LPO works with all borrowers to create good-paying jobs with strong labor standards from construction through the life of the loan. Plug also supports the Justice40 Initiative, which set the goal that 40% of overall benefits of certain federal investments flow to disadvantaged communities overburdened by pollution.

While this conditional commitment indicates DOE’s intent to finance the project, the company must satisfy certain technical, legal, environmental, and financial conditions before the Department enters into definitive financing documents and funds the loan guarantee.

Catalyze, a national independent power producer that finances, builds, owns and operates solar and battery storage systems, announced that it secured $100 million in financing from NY Green Bank, a division of the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA), to support a 79 MW portfolio of community distributed generation (CDG) solar projects across New York State.

“CDG is one of the most effective means of making solar energy more accessible to low-to-moderate income communities, and we look forward to how this partnership will support both the goals of NY Green Bank and New York State,” said Jared Haines, CEO of Catalyze.

NY Green Bank is the oldest green bank in the nation and supports the state’s green economy, which was written into law under the Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act. The Climate Act set the goal of economy-wide carbon neutrality by mandating an 85% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions by 2050 and a 100% clean electric grid by 2040. This includes a goal of installing 6 GW of distributed solar by 2025, on the path to 10 GW by 2030.

The NY Green Bank’s mission is to collaborate with the private sector to “transform financing markets in ways that accelerate clean energy investments, combat climate change, and equitably deliver both economic and environmental benefits to all New Yorkers.”

The transaction requires that a significant percentage of solar project subscribers benefit disadvantaged communities.

“As our first term loan using a sale-leaseback structure for a CDG portfolio, coupled with a minimum 65% subscriber commitment benefiting historically disadvantaged communities, this transaction underscores NY Green Bank’s unique ability to provide innovative financing solutions that support the equitable distribution of clean energy,” said Andrew Kessler, president of NY Green Bank.

Solar and wind powered boat’s final voyage across the sea The Energy Observer has one more stop in Saint-Pierre et Miquelon, a French territory just south of Newfoundland, before powering across the North Atlantic to retire.

Renew Home launches with virtual power plant solution Through the partnership of Google Nest Renew and OhmConnect, Renew Home, has a goal of expanding from 3 GW of electrical energy use to 50 GW by 2030.

Opposition stymies solar – sometimes Strong growth in U.S. solar installations might suggest that solar has strong support but developers cite public opposition as a major challenge.

Active Surfaces raises $5.6 million to develop ‘solar 2.0’ This MIT spinout is developing lightweight, flexible solar panels that can be integrated into virtually any surface and manufactured using a printed, roll-to-roll process.

Active Surfaces, a Massachusetts-based startup spun out of MIT, has raised $5.6 million in an oversubscribed pre-seed funding round led by Safar Partners, a deep tech venture capital fund.

Active Surfaces is developing lightweight, flexible solar panels that can be integrated into virtually any surface. The solar is manufactured using a printed, roll-to-roll process. Co-founder and CTO, Richard Swartwout, said that this funding will enable the company to expand R&D efforts, scale up production, and bring its “cutting-edge solar solutions to market more rapidly”.

The funding round was led by the deep tech venture capital fund Safar Partners. Additional participants include QVT, Lendlease, Type One Ventures, Umami Capital, Sabanci Climate Ventures, New Climate Ventures, SeaX Ventures, and others—reflect a diverse support base ranging from institutional VCs to corporate backers.

“Active Surfaces is pioneering a transformation in the built environment,” said Tommaso Boralevi, Technology & Innovation Director Europe at the Milan Innovation District (MIND) established by Lendlease, a global construction, development, and investment company. “At Lendlease, we are committed to advancing sustainable urbanization, and our investment in Active Surfaces represents a significant step towards integrating novel capabilities directly into the fabric of future developments.”

The company was also awarded $100,000 as part of last year’s MIT $100K Entrepreneurship competition. It had previously won $75,000 from Massachusetts Clean Energy Center’s (MassCEC) Catalyst, Diversity in Cleantech – Early Stage (DICES), and InnovateMass programs that support clean energy and climatetech innovators in Massachusetts.

Swartwout describes the flexible, thin film solar as a “solar 2.0” technology. Solar 1.0 technology is seen in the large, rigid and heavy solar panels commonly installed today. Active Surfaces expects its solar 2.0 thin-film solar to  deliver dramatically higher efficiency, lower costs and greater versatility.

The company plans to scale its laboratory-fabricated 4-by-4-inch photovoltaic devices by advancing industrial roll-to-roll semiconductor printing technologies.

The process originally began in the MIT.nano clean room, where a team of researchers coated the solar cell structure using a slot-die coater. This deposited layers of electronic materials onto a 3-micron thick substrate. Then an electrode is screen printed onto the structure. The module, which is then about 15 microns thick, can be peeled off the substrate.

The choice of substrate was critical as it had to be lightweight and flexible, yet strong. What they found was a composite fabric known as Dyneema, made of extremely strong fibers. A UV-curable is added in a thin layer, which adheres the solar modules to the fabric to form what is described an an ultra-light and mechanically robust solar structure.

By adding a layer of UV-curable glue, which is only a few microns thick, they adhere the solar modules to sheets of this fabric. This forms an ultra-light and mechanically robust solar structure.

Sunnova Energy International, a provider of solar, energy storage, and home energy adaptive services, announced its Q1 2024 earnings, noting a continued decline in revenues amid a challenging U.S. macroeconomic environment for the residential solar industry.

Revenues fell short of consensus estimates, with $160.9 million reported versus an expected $193.5 million. On an earnings per share basis, the company exceeded expectations, delivering a loss of $0.17 versus an expected loss of $0.66 per share.

Investors have been flagging concerns about the company’s ability to generate enough cash, which has come under focus for Sunnova’s management. Along with continued reductions operational costs, the company pulled on levers to secure unrestricted cash, which increased by $18.9 million in the first quarter compared to the prior quarter. The company now has about $232 million in unrestricted cash.

“Our team is squarely focused on increasing our cash generation and maintaining our margins. Through continued cost efficiencies, maximizing our asset-level financing, further utilizing investment tax credit adders, and re-focusing on our core adaptive energy customers, we expect to be able to drive improved performance,” said William J. (John) Berger, Sunnova’s founder and chief executive officer.

The residential and commercial solar industry has faced struggles over the past year as a high interest rate environment has squeezed financing, making the return on investment for homeowners less attractive. However, steadily rising utility rates and consumer desire for extra services like battery backup continue to drive demand.

The high interest-rate environment has pushed the industry away from a finance and loan based market to one more focused on leases and power purchase agreements. This is expected to be a benefit to Sunnova, which has a strong position in the lease and third-party-owned solar and storage sector.

“Our core value thesis remains strong and intact, and homeowners and businesses continue to see the benefits of becoming Sunnova customers in the face of rising utility rates and grid instability,” said Berger.

The company added about 27,000 new customers in-quarter, bringing its total count to over 438,000. Sunnova operates in 51 states and territories and has a network of over 2,000 dealers, subcontractors and builders in its network. The company has lowered its guidance for customer additions for the full year 2024, decreasing from a range of 140,000 to 150,000 customers from previous estimates of 185,000 to 190,000. The guidance would represent about 35% year-over-year growth in Sunnova’s customer base.

The company’s operating expenses increased by $29.9 million to $108.3 million year-over-year for the quarter. The company incurred net losses of $90.1 million, posting lower net losses than the $110.3 million posted in Q1, 2023.

In-quarter, the company entered a strategic alliance with The Home Depot to be the exclusive solar provider for the retail giant. Over 2,000 locations will host Sunnova representatives helping Home Depot customers make an inquiry into residential solar, energy storage, and home energy management services for their residence.

In September 2023, Sunnova secured a $3 billion partial loan guarantee agreement with the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Loan Programs Office (LPO), equating to a 90% guarantee of up to $3.3 billion of term loans. The funds will support loans originated by Sunnova under its new “Project Hestia.”

Project Hestia is designed to increase access to solar and virtual power plant (VPP) services for disadvantaged communities who otherwise may not be able to secure loans for residential solar projects. The company will receive indirect and partially guaranteed cash flows for the loans associated with these customer accounts.