800 MW DC solar project: Swift Current Energy has commissioned its 800 MW DC/593 MW AC Double Black Diamond Solar Project in Mississippi, US. Touting it as the largest operating solar facility east of the Mississippi, Swift says this project is supplying power to the City of Chicago, catering to about 70% of the power required for its facilities, including O’Hare and Midway airports. Additionally, Cook County, CVS Health, Loyola University Chicago, PPG, State Farm, and TransUnion are sourcing power from the project via Constellation NewEnergy, Inc. Google has provided tax equity for this project, with Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group (MUFG) providing construction financing along with Societe Generale, Truist, and 8 other leading lenders. First Solar’s Ohio factory supplied the majority of the more than 1.6 million solar modules installed at this project, while Nextracker supplied its racking solutions with key components made in the US.
Enphase’s US production: Solar microinverter Enphase Energy says it has now shipped over 6.5 million IQ microinverters and 50 MWh of IQ batteries from its US contract manufacturing facilities. Close to 1 million of these microinverters were made with higher domestic content than the previous models, it adds, which can help solar projects qualify for the Domestic Content Bonus Credit, ensuring that they can use less additional US-made solar equipment to meet the requirement. “Today, approximately 80% of all Enphase microinverter shipments come from the United States. That’s real impact! These milestones are a testament to our commitment to American energy dominance,” said Enphase Energy’s Senior Vice President and General Manager of the Americas and APAC, Ken Fong. Enphase recently said that the US tariffs will not influence its microinverter business, but will impact its battery business (see Q1 2025 In Line For Enphase Energy; Expects Tariff Impact In Q2).
CDPQ’s Innergex acquisition: Canada’s Innergex Renewable Energy shareholders have overwhelmingly approved the all-cash CAD 10 billion takeover offer of pension manager Caisse de Depot et Placement du Quebec (CDPQ). In a special meeting of the company shareholders on May 1, 2025, 99.86% of the votes cast by the common shareholders voted in favor of the offer. The hearing of the final order is scheduled to take place on May 7, 2025, following which the arrangement will be complete by Q4 2025. The deal values Innergex at a 58% premium over its current share price (see CDPQ To Acquire Innergex Renewable Energy In CAD 10 Billion Deal).
Up to $415 million for Recurrent Energy: Canadian Solar subsidiary Recurrent Energy has raised up to $415 million in a flexible multi-currency credit facility from a consortium of 4 banks comprising Banco Santander, Rabobank, Intesa Sanpaolo, and Morgan Stanley. It includes an accordion feature that allows for potential upsizing. Disbursements can be made in USD, EUR, GBP, and AUD. Recurrent says this facility will support its endeavor to expand its independent power producer (IPP) portfolio across diverse geographies and markets.
CAD 300 million for Canada’s BluEarth: Canadian renewable energy company BluEarth Renewables has secured a CAD 300 million corporate credit facility from 5 institutions, namely CIBC Capital Markets, National Bank, Desjardins, ATB Financial, and Rabobank. This loan replaces an existing corporate revolver, says the management. The company plans to use it to fund development opportunities and acquisitions, along with other strategic and operating initiatives across North America.
Sunrun’s CalReady power plant: Sunrun says its CalReady solar and battery power plant in California has quadrupled in size to approximately 75,000 batteries, expanding its capacity to deliver an average of 250 MW/2-hour event with the ability to reach an instantaneous peak of up to 375 MW. These systems are installed by more than 56,000 of its customers. This distributed power plant can provide critical energy to the state grid during high energy prices, heat waves, and other grid emergency events. It will lower energy costs for all ratepayers, it added. Under the California Energy Commission’s Demand Side Grid Support program of California Energy Commission, Sunrun says its CalReady power plant is the largest home storage aggregation that is available to support the state’s grid each day from 4 PM to 9 PM, from May to October.
Trina Storage expands in North America: Trina Storage, part of China’s Trinasolar, has announced its largest grid-scale deployment in North America using its Elementa 2 solution with 371 MWh of battery energy storage system (BESS). For this project in Houston, Texas, developed by SMT Energy, Trina Storage has partnered with BESS and energy management software provider FlexGen, which will provide its HybridOS software to enable the site operators to detect issues faster, predict maintenance needs and maximize operational efficiency.