USA

Dominion Energy has acquired a 72-MW solar project still under construction in Beaufort county, South Carolina, from First Solar.

The New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA) and Citizens Energy Corporation announced the completion of a 1.4-MW solar project in the Mohawk Valley. Located in Oneida County, Upstate Cerebral Palsy is the sole beneficiary of the commercial solar project.

According to new research from Wood Mackenzie, non-residential storage system costs will fall by 27% in the United States over the next five years. The fall in system costs will help drive a more-than-tenfold growth in the U.S. non-residential storage market by 2024. Commercial and industrial customers with predictable, peaky loads are increasingly turning to storage to help manage demand charges.

Law firm Wigdor LLP has brought another class-action lawsuit against New Jersey-based solar installer Momentum Solar. A former employee in the company’s call center, who is black, has alleged that management frequently referred to him by racial slurs, and was shortly terminated after filing a complaint.

SEIA announced that the Minnesota Solar Energy Industries Association (MnSEIA) is now a formal SEIA state affiliate. This past year, SEIA has also added state affiliate groups in Kentucky, Alabama and Vermont.

Sunworks, a provider of solar power solutions for agriculture, commercial, industrial (ACI), public works and residential markets, has been awarded an EPC contract to develop a 657-kW roof-mount PV solar project for a Southern California residential complex in partnership with Bright Power.

8minute Solar Energy has partnered with Doosan GridTech to develop an advanced energy software control solution for dispatching energy from advanced photovoltaic solar-plus-storage centers (PVS).

Thin-film solar panel manufacturer First Solar today announced the start of production at its new PV module manufacturing facility in Lake Township, Ohio — a few miles from its flagship 600-MW factory in Perrysburg, Ohio. With the completed addition, First Solar has a total annualized production capacity of 1.9 GW in the United States. The company also manufactures panels in Malaysia and Vietnam.

TicketNetwork, a leading software development company in the ticket resale marketplace, has deployed a 1.4-MW solar system on the roof of its Connecticut headquarters. The system, which was completed in the spring of this year, will offset nearly 70% of the company’s annual energy use and dramatically reduce its carbon footprint.

At the recent Solar Power International trade show in Salt Lake City, Utah, part of the larger North America Smart Energy Week, pv magazine met with Hank Wang, President of the Americas Region at the Chinese inverter manufacturer Sungrow. The company expects to ship 2 GW of products to North American markets this year with utility-scale products making up the bulk of these shipments.

‘Solar Module Super League’ (SMSL) member, First Solar said it was sold out of thin-film cadmium telluride (CdTe) solar modules through the second half of 2021 as the company continues to ramp its Series 6 larger-area modules.

A standalone Investment Tax Credit (ITC) for energy storage in the US holds the potential to be more immediate and impactful than any other policy, the head of the US national Energy Storage Association has said.

DE Shaw Renewable Investments has purchased two neighbouring PV projects in Utah contracted to provide power to Facebook from developer First Solar.

Tesla reported a bounce back in solar installations in the third quarter of 2019, while energy storage installs reached a new record high. The company is also launching a third-generation residential roof system ahead of a volume production ramp.

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.