North America PV News Snippets: Canadian Solar’s Thomas Koerner At RE+ Manufacturing Conference & More

Canadian Solar at RE+: For the upcoming RE+ event in California, TaiyangNews has partnered with EUPD Research and RE+ to host a 1-day conference on Solar Made In USA How to manufacture solar wafers, cells & modules competitively in the United States. At this event on September 9, 2024, Canadian Solar’s Corporate Senior VP Global Sales Thomas Koerner will speak about successfully establishing cell and module production factories in the US. Register for the event here. 

Scorpius Trackers in the US: Indian EPC company Gensol Engineering Limited has ventured into the US market with the launch of a subsidiary Scorpius Tracker Inc. The Delaware-based subsidiary targets to supply over 2 GW of its tracker technology annually by 2028. It has picked California as a strategic market for the US office. Scorpius Trackers Inc. will be headed by the Co-Founder and CEO of Scorpius Tracker Pvt Ltd (India) Shailesh Vaidya as the CEO. Scorpius will debut its trackers at the RE+ event in September 2024. 

Ingeteam supplier for Acciona projects: Spain’s Ingeteam has supplied more than 1 GW of its solar PV power conversion systems and controls for Acciona Energia in the US. It includes 48 central inverters for a 317 MW AC solar power plant as the 1st large-scale project to be installed and commissioned by the company for Acciona in the country. Another 458 MW AC project is equipped with INGECON SUN 3Power C Series liquid cooling central inverters and 71 medium voltage full skid type transformer stations. Another Acciona project with 325 MW AC capacity in Ohio uses 124 central inverters and a PPC control system. The company has supplied more than 5 GW of its technology thus far, mostly for utility-scale PV and energy storage plants in the US.  

Apricus closes Series A funding: Distributed solar and battery development platform and independent power producer (IPP) Apricus Generation has closed its Series A funding round. It was led by Blue Marlin Partners and Current Yield with Participation (CYwP) Fund. Apricus said with this closing, it has already raised the majority of Series A capital and is over-committed towards its $100 million corporate equity capital raise goal. The funds will be deployed to accelerate its business plan and support the growth of its recent acquisition of a controlling interest in the Toronto-based developer of US solar and energy storage projects, Nexus Renewables, Inc. (see Maiden Acquisition For Newly Launched Apricus Generation).   

SunPower’s bankruptcy update: Complete Solaria’s $45 million bid to acquire SunPower assets has secured a nod from a US bankruptcy court. According to a Reuters report, if by September 10, 2024, there are no additional bids to Complete Solaria’s offer, the latter’s stalking horse bid will go ahead. If there are additional offers, then an auction may be held on September 16, 2024. The report also claims that SunPower’s manufacturing spin-off Maxeon Solar Technologies objected to the stalking bidding rules saying it owns the rights to SunPower trademarks outside the US. However, the court overruled it. Once a pioneering name in the US solar sector, SunPower filed for bankruptcy protection recently with its rival Complete Solaria offering to acquire its Blue Raven Solar and New Homes businesses among other assets as the stalking horse buyer (see SunPower Corporation & Subsidiaries File For Bankruptcy Protection Under Chapter 11).    

$550 million for California hybrid project: Clearway Energy Group has closed $550 million in construction financing for its 140 MW Rosamond South I Solar and Storage Project in California’s Kern County. Co-located with 118 MW storage capacity, the project is now under construction. Referred to as Golden Fields Solar IV LLC by its offtakers, Clearway said the project is contracted under long-term agreements with several load-serving entities in California. These include 15-year agreements with MCE, The University of California, Rancho Cucamonga Municipal Utility, Eastside Power Authority, and the City of Moreno Valley. The construction loan of $550 million has come from a bank consortium comprising Societe Generale, Australia and New Zealand Banking Group Limited Siemens Financial Services, Commerzbank, CoBank, DNB Bank ASA, and Nord/LB. It is scheduled to enter commercial operations in 2025.  

US DOE funding for solar in Puerto Rico: The US Department of Energy (DOE) has announced a $325 million funding opportunity to support reliable solar energy facilities and storage installations across Puerto Rico. The new Programa de Comunidades Resilientes will be funded by a 2nd tranche of the department’s Puerto Rico Energy Resilience Fund (PR-ERF). The DOE targets to improve clean energy access for low- and moderate-income communities. It will fund solar and battery storage installations for community healthcare facilities as well as community centers and other common areas within public housing and privately owned subsidized multi-family properties. Applications for this opportunity will be accepted till October 22, 2024. Details are available on DOE’s website.