Over the past 12 months, the US solar business has been on a rollercoaster ride, with the high-profile bankruptcy of SunEdison and the merger of SolarCity and Tesla stealing the headlines. Danielle Ola talks to the experts about some of the key trends shaping the world of solar finance
and investment in the US.
Lazard, the financial advisory that advised SolarCity on its US$2.6 billion all-stock sale to Tesla, made an error in its analysis resulting in the solar installer being undervalued by US$400 million, according to a regulatory filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).
Not-for-profit GivePower Foundation, created by US firm SolarCity, has installed the Democratic Republic of Congo’s (DRC) first minigrid using solar and battery storage at Virunga National Park.
Tesla will make its own inverters for use with SolarCity PV installs and its own energy storage products, according to its chairman and CEO, Elon Musk.
Tesla Motors' possible acquisition of leading US residential PV installer SolarCity has been sealed with an all-stock transaction valued at around US$2.6 billion.
In this week's Movers & Shakers, PV Tech reports some recent industry mergers and acquisitions, dramatic UK solar job losses and an equally dramatic opportunity for job growth in the US with Tesla's new Gigafactory in Nevada.
The future for Tesla-SolarCity could lie in aggregating rooftop PV with stationary energy storage, EVs and other distributed energy resources, the head of energy storage market analysis at Bloomberg New Energy Finance (BNEF) has said.
A panel of finance experts speaking at InterSolar Europe have given news of the Tesla-SolarCity deal mixed reviews ranging from "silly" to "brilliant".
Last night, chief of Tesla and chairman of SolarCity Elon Musk put in a bid to acquire the largest residential solar installer in the US, SolarCity, which is headed by his cousins Lyndon and Peter Rive. PV Tech traces back over time for key moments that set the tone for Musk's latest grand move.
