Interconnection: Renewable Energy USA
Welcome to Megawatt Recruitment’s monthly newsletter to keep you connected to what’s going on in the renewable energy industry in the United States and provide more insight, knowledge, and connection to the people and companies who drive our industry.
What People Are Talking About
- TIME and Statista released their list of America’s Top GreenTech Companies for 2024 which span the gamut from renewable energy production and storage to agricultural & food technology to building efficiency to circular economy and to mobility.
- Invenergy secured $1.27B to build 677MW of renewables in Kansas and Texas.
- LSBP secured nearly $350M for 288MWdc of utility-scale solar in Texas with first-of-kind transferability bridge loan and equity partner bridge loan.
- Primergy Solar LLC secured almost $600M in debt financing for the 408MWac Ash Creek Solar project in Hill Country, Texas with Microsoft as the offtaker.
- Big Sun Solar’s 2.6MW solar project is operational and is powering Vitesco Technologies’, a German automotive supplier, manufacturing plant north of Seguin, Texas.
- According to BIC Magazine, operators plan to retire 5.2GW of U.S. electric generating capacity in 2024 while new utility-scale generation capacity is expected to increase by almost 63GW in 2024, and 81% of it is expected to be solar and battery storage (58% and 23% respectively).
- Final rules for the Inflation Reduction Act expanded access to clean energy tax credits to governments, non-profits, U.S. territories, and select other tax-exempt organizations. It also allows businesses to transfer clean energy credits for tax-exempt cash. Read more here.
- U.S. DOE pledged grant funding of 750M to support 52 projects for the domestic production of electrolyzers and equipment for the production of green H2.
- A class action securities lawsuit was filed against Sunnova Energy International Inc for misleading statements, which comes just weeks after Sunnova’s stock tanked following a press release of a stock offering plan.
- Citing overcapacity in solar, LONGi appears to have laid off nearly 25,000 factory workers and management trainees since Nov 2023 according to Bloomberg.
- Borrego Energy rebranded its O&M division to Cleanleaf Energy which focuses
Recent Personnel Moves and Promotions
Northland Power’s CEO, Mike Crawley, will be stepping down effective September 30th, 2024, and Chair of the Board, John Brace, who also served as CEO of Northland from 2003 – 2018, will serve as interim CEO until a new CEO is appointed.
Colin Crooks became CEO of ACT Group, a leader in environmental products trading such as RECs, EACs (energy attribute credits), and carbon trading as well as carbon capture project development, as of April 1st. He was previously SVP of Renewables and Energy Solutions at Shell and is based in the Netherlands.
Effective July 1st, 2024, Ocean Winds, the 50/50 JV between EDP Renewables and ENGIE, will gain a new CEO, Craig Windram. He is coming from Voltalia in France where he is Head of Europe, Africa, and International.
Origis Energy’s Founder and CEO, Guy Vanderhaegen, stepped aside into the newly formed role of Executive Chairman, and Vikas Anand, formerly serving as Origis’ COO and CFO, took the reigns as CEO.
Robert (Bob) Zulkoski was appointed as CEO of iSun, a publicly traded solar energy and clean mobility infrastructure company based in Vermont, and comes from Conduit Capital Holdings US, where he was a Managing Director. Previous CEO, Jeff Peck, who has been with the company since 1994 will serve as a Strategic Advisor to the CEO and Board.
Fay Shong, previously the Practice Partner for Global Energy and Materials with McKinsey & Co. joined PBF Energy, a petroleum refining and logistics company, as VP of Renewable Energy and Corporate Development.
Soltec, a Spanish solar developer and tracker manufacturing and installation company, brought on Alma Miller as CEO of North America for Soltec Trackers. She was previously Country Manager for the USA of a technology services company.
Following Tom Werner’s return to SunPower in February, Tony Garzolini has also rejoined SunPower as EVP and Chief Revenue Officer where he previously served as VP of Sales for Residential.
Spearmint Energy hired Rafia Merchant as Managing Director of Capital Markets. She was previously Director of Acquisitions, Investments, and Financial Advisory for ENGIE North America.
Centerview Partners also gained a Managing Director recently with the hire of Brendan MacBride, previously in a similar position at Morgan Stanley.
Taking on the position of Senior Manager for Origination of Community Solar projects with Trina Solar is Chris Deschacht, previously with ENGIE North America in a similar position.
Meta’s Global Director of Energy, Jeff Bladden, took on an additional role as Independent Member of the Board of Directors for ESIG (Energy Systems Integration Group), a non-profit with history dating back to 1989, with a mission to solve technical problems in the electric industry.
After heading his own solar and storage development, EPC, and consulting firm for over 7 years, Anatoliy Zeltser has joined VC Renewables, a platform of commodity trading giant Vitol, as Director of Construction.
Market Insights: Solar Theft on the Rise
As summer rolls in, solar panels will soon reach peak production. The days will be longer, the sun will be higher in the sky, and there will not be snow to block the sun’s rays. While this is a positive, the drawback is that this is also the time of the year when thieves are most highly incentivized to steal panels.
Personally, I had never heard of this happening in the U.S. before recently. When I lived in Singapore and spoke with developers who were building projects in places like Myanmar or Indonesia, they would tell me stories about showing up in the morning to find that everything they had installed on a project site the previous day had disappeared. Or, that the project was surrounded by armed thugs who would hold the project hostage and demand a ransom.
However, it seems that theft of commercial scale solar panels is on the rise in the U.S. According to SolarInsure, the number of claims related to solar theft increased 17% from 2021 to 2022, and thieves are using Google Earth to identify easy targets which are often ones in remote areas, far from police, and with little to no security systems or lighting in place.
In June of last year, more than 100 solar panels (50kW) were stolen from an educational complex that was slated for a 150kW + 300kW battery microgrid project in the U.S. Virgin Islands. It seems theft is on the rise in other developed nations as well. German solar security business Viamon says over 5,00 major solar thefts occur annually in Europe including over 400 in Germany and many in the UK.
Talent Insights: IT backgrounds in demand
As touched upon in our Market Insight article above about the rise in solar crime, there is a need for talent in the information technology fields ranging from cyber security to SCADA systems to programmers for robotics integrated with AI and many other functions. While many of these jobs are not new and there are well-established talent pools, as the renewable energy industry grows, it will increasingly find itself in competition for professionals in these fields.
We have been hearing of a slowdown in the residential solar sector with large companies such as Sunrun rumored to be laying off workers and undergoing hiring freezes. California seems to have been hit the worst, likely a result of high interest rates as well as its switch to NEM3. The California Solar & Storage Association reported 17,000 jobs were lost in 2023. This can be a good opportunity to find candidates who are open to relocation out of California who have strong experience with the residential solar market to lead efforts in more nascent but growing residential markets such as New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania.
This time of year is a good time for companies to start preparing to hire new graduates. With many universities holding graduation ceremonies at the end of May or early June, now is the time to put out advertisements for jobs and start courting candidates.
Note:
Note: In our last issue of Interconnection: Renewable Energy USA, we spoke about proposed changes to the 45V tax credit and how this may effect hydrogen production in the USA. At the time of publishing this article, the public comment period closed and the public hearing was held March 25th, 2024. There has not, however, been further guidance to share in this month’s issue. Follow along with us in the coming months for more updates.
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Thank you for joining us for another issue of Interconnection: Renewable Energy USA. We hope you enjoyed it and we look forward to keeping in touch and exchanging ideas, insights, and opinions. If you are a company considering hiring, we welcome the opportunity to present our services and capabilities. If you are a candidate, please check our jobs page or reach out to us to discuss your background, skills, and future aspirations.