This week's Movers & Shakers segment features executive shuffles in energy storage companies and an O&M firm, while examining a new merger between Spain's Gamesa and Siemens Wind Power. Spain's Renewable Energy Association elects a new president for the next four years, and Jon Wellinghoff exits SolarCity amid the US$2 billion Tesla acquisition.
Shares of residential solar company Sunrun fell nearly 10% in trading yesterday after news broke of the investigation by the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on whether the company adequately disclosed how many customers had cancelled contracts.
Tesla reported first quarter 2017 solar installations of 150MW, down from 201MW in the previous quarter, a 25% decrease, due to selection criteria biased towards customer owned PV systems rather than leased.
Global clean energy investment in the first quarter of 2017 was down 17% compared to Q1 2016, as market leaders China and the US scaled back support for wind and solar farms.
In a major energy strategy upheaval, the South Australian government is providing significant funding to support energy storage projects, starting with a 100MW grid-connected battery that will be the largest in the country.
Swedish start-up Northvolt, which is run by two former Tesla Motors executives, plans to build a huge lithium-ion battery factory in the Nordic region, giving Tesla and Panasonic's Nevada Gigafactory a close rival within Europe in terms of size.
Elon Musk touts Tesla's ability to solve South Australia's power crisis in 100 days, Apple's manufacturer in Japan Ibiden to go 100% renewable, USTDA grant for feasibility study into 34MW of solar in Burkino Faso grant, India PV canal capacity reaches 24MW.
Major Japanese electronics company Panasonic has increased its ‘HIT’ (Heterojunction with Intrinsic Thin layer) solar module product warranty from 15 years to 25 years and applies to all HIT modules installed from 2017.
Panasonic’s solar manufacturing deal with Tesla at the former SolarCity 1GW solar cell and module assembly plant at RiverBend, Buffalo, New York State, which was recently renamed Gigafactory 2 by Tesla is to be ramped to its 1GW nameplate capacity exclusively by Panasonic in 2019.
From PV-Tech’s publisher comes The Global Energy Storage Opportunity, a special online-only supplement magazine that looks at some of the exciting recent developments in all segments from microgrids and residential to grid-scale and commercial.
