Lyndon Rive, founder and former chief executive of SolarCity has announced that he is leaving Tesla, the residential solar giant’s new owners since November.
The seasonally soft first quarter of the year for the residential solar rooftop market in the US played out again in 2017, with the addition of much heavier rainfall, notably in California. A basket of primarily US residential installers that are publically listed have recently reported first quarter results.
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.
