Mark Roe, formerly of Apple, has joined SolarCity as its new vice president of operations. During his time at Apple Roe was senior director of worldwide service; a position which saw him manage global service operations for new product introduction, technical training, field support and feedback, service engineering and Apple Retail service among other functions.
IC Sunshine, a division of Axio Power Holdings, has signed a 20-year power purchase agreement (PPA) with Hawaiian Electric wherein IC Sunshine will sell the utility electric power from the soon to be constructed 5MW solar farm in Campbell Industrial Park on Oahu. The PPA is awaiting final approval from the Hawaii Public Utilities Commission, but sports a 20-year contract price that is fixed with slight annual increases.
Every two years, student teams from universities around the world gather at the National Mall in Washington D.C. to design, build and operate solar powered houses that not only compete for awards, but educate the public on the properties of a solar powered house through the Solar Decathlon. However, this year, the Department of the Interior (DOI) has made a major change to the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) competition by deciding to relocate the decathlon to an alternate site.
John McLane has accepted the president position with GCube Insurance Services, a worldwide insurance provider for the renewable energy arena. McLane was named one of the top five energy insurance brokers in the U.S. by Risk & Insurance Magazine in 2006 and will rely on his 30-year background in insurance and risk financing programs for utility scale renewable energy projects to guide him in his new position.
A twenty-year veteran in the electric utility and electric equipment manufacturing industry, Dr. Ali Chowdhury, is the new vice president of transmission and interconnection planning for 8minutenergy Renewables. In his new role, Chowdhury will oversee the development and business features necessary to bring solar PV projects to their full realization in a swift period of time.
HelioPower has started construction of its 516kW (DC) solar power system at the Giumarra Vineyards production and cold storage facility in Bakersfield, California. The system will use over 2,296 PV modules to produce 1GWh of electricity per year.
Sungevity has appointed Mac Irvin as the company’s new chief financial officer. With over 20 years of experience in equity investments, fundraising, leasing and other structured transactions for domestic and international markets, Irvin will be leading Sungevity in its corporate finance and accounting activities as well as acquiring project financing for their solar leasing product.
Founder and President Emeritus of SunPower, Richard Swanson, has been selected as the recipient for the 2011 Karl Böer Solar Energy Medal of Merit. The honor comes with a cash award of US$50,000, which is funded by the Karl Böer Solar Energy Medal of Merit Trust. The Medal is given every two years to an individual that has made ground-breaking contributions towards the promotion of solar energy through research, development or economic enterprise or to an individual that has proven themselves with valuable and enduring contributions to the solar energy field.
During its fourth quarter in 2010, Clear Skies Solar released that it was expanding its market focus with a new division that would focus on solar installation projects in the sub-300kW division for commercial and residential installations. Moving forward with this resolution, the company has added new members to its sales and management teams including Allen Sosis as vice president of sales and marketing and John Conte as the national vice president of residential sales.
Over the next 18-months Georgia Power and the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) will be performing a study that will assess how solar PV power systems affect Georgia Power’s distribution system. Testing will be conducted at fifty PV systems that will be installed in cities around Georgia including: Augusta, Columbus, Conley, Macon, Rome, Savannah and Valdosta. The panels installed will be owned by EPRI and installed by Georgia Power.
