North America

Distributed Solar Development (DSD), a business backed by BlackRock Real Assets’ Global Renewable Power platform and GE Renewable Energy, has closed on a US$250 million fund financed by Morgan Stanley, Silicon Valley Bank and Fifth Third Bank that will be utilised to fund a portfolio of distributed generation projects through 2020.

Western Canada's largest and first utility-scale solar project could soon get a whole lot bigger.

Residents who get their electricity from Fayetteville Public Works will be able to benefit from solar energy without having to put panels on their homes.

D. E. Shaw Renewable Investments (DESRI) announced it has acquired First Solar’s Cove Mountain and Cove Mountain 2 projects in Iron County, Utah. The acquisition of the two projects, the sales of which were previously disclosed by First Solar and which total 180 MWAC in capacity, nearly doubles DESRI’s portfolio of First Solar-developed projects to over 360 MWAC.

Horne Brothers Construction (HBC) has completed the civil and mechanical construction on a 1-MW community solar project in North Carolina for municipal utility Fayetteville Public Works Commission (PWC). Other local partners on the project include the NC State Clean Energy Technology Center, Dewberry and Directional Services.

Deals for utility-scale solar installations are accelerating on tribal lands in the Southwest U.S., according to a report published by the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis (IEEFA).

The Italian fossil fuel company is not hanging around when it comes to diversifying into PV, with almost 1.5 GW of generation capacity plugged in since the start of last year.

Information management company Iron Mountain announced it has closed on its largest on-site solar PPA contract to date. The 7.2-MW solar installation at Iron Mountain’s data center in Edison, New Jersey, will provide approximately 15% of the data center’s current energy load.

A group of engineering students from Engineers for a Sustainable World at University of California, Irvine visited Irvine-based utility-scale solar developer Sunpin Solar last week for a Lunch and Learn presentation and a solar tour at Sunpin Solar’s 96.75-MW ColGreen North Shore solar project in Riverside County.

KORE Power today announced its intentions to build a lithium-ion battery manufacturing plant in the United States to support global growth efforts for its Mark 1 Energy Storage System.

Sofdesk, parent company of end-to-end solar software provider Solargraf, has acquired solar sales proposal platform Energy Periscope. On Oct. 21, Solargraf announced its lead generation business would be acquired by Wave Solar.

The city council representing the Cleveland suburb of Lakewood, Ohio, passed a resolution establishing a goal of 100% clean, renewable energy. Lakewood joins Cleveland and Cincinnati as the third Ohio city, and the first suburb, to make this commitment.

U.S. Light Energy, a New York solar energy company specializing in the development of solar electric and community solar systems, celebrated the completion of the 7-MW Sugar Hill Solar Farm. Local officials, project partners and U.S. Light Energy participated in a ribbon-cutting and community tour of the first community solar farm in Clifton Park, New York.

Analyst WoodMac has spelled out the urgent need to decarbonize the global hydrogen production industry. While the fuel can offer a sustainable grid balancing act for intermittent renewables, in its current fossil-fuel driven form it is pumping out more than 800 tons of carbon into the atmosphere every year.

In this op-ed for pv magazine, Roy Torbert and José Juan Terrasa-Soler, of the Rocky Mountain Institute and Resilient Power Puerto Rico, respectively, analyze the cost of Puerto Rico’s energy recovery and the role that microgrids play in reconstruction and resiliency.