North America PV News Snippets

Borrego's solar and storage projects for AES complete; Solterra raises $10 million for 1 GW solar; US Court rules against Hanwha, says LONGi; Leeward constructing 200 MW solar project; Rhode Island's 100% RE legislation moves forward.

Borrego's 15 solar and storage portfolio for AES: EPC service provider Borrego has completed construction of 15 solar power projects with a combined capacity of 96 MW, paired with a total of 50 MW/169 MWh energy storage. Borrego says it is the company's largest storage portfolio built for a single customer to date, in this case it is AES Corporation. These projects are also among its 1^st DC-coupled solar-plus-storage installations. All the individual projects vary in size from 1.6 MW to 12 MW for solar and 910 kW/1.7 MWh to 9 MW/17 MWh of storage. Most of these projects are community solar.

1 GW DG and utility scale solar gets $10 million: Solterra Energy has raised $10 million in early-stage growth and development capital from Leyline Renewable Capital. It plans to use the proceeds for project related expenses and working capital costs to support up to 1 GW of distributed generation (DG) and utility scale solar energy projects across the Eastern US.

LONGi claims IPR win against Hanwha in the US: LONGi Solar has said the US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit has issued an appeal decision on the invalidation of Hanwha's US patent US9893215B2. Through this, the court has upheld the US Patent and Trademark Office's (USPTO) Invalidation Decision ruling in favor of the patent's invalidity. This way, LONGi said it has won both the International Trade Commission (ITC) litigation and the patent invalidation case (IPR) against Hanwha in the US. The duo continues to battle out the patent infringement proceedings in France and Australia.

Leeward breaks ground on 200 MW solar project: Leeward Renewable Energy (LRE) has started construction on site for 200 MW Horizon Solar Project in Frio County's Pearsall in Texas. The project will use solar modules from First Solar, Inc and solar trackers from Nextracker. It is contracted under 4, 15-year renewable energy purchase agreements (REPA) with Verizon Communications. In Texas, Leeward already has a 20 MW Barilla Solar Project operational. It claims to have more than 1.2 GW of contracted solar projects come online by the end of 2023, as well as another 16 GW solar capacity in development and construction.

Rhode Island's 100% RE legislation: The Rhode Island House of Representatives has approved a legislation that will mandate the state offset all of its electricity from renewable energy sources by 2033. The bill H277/S2274 is now headed to the Senate and once it clears it will need to be signed by the State Governor Dan McKee. "While the RES does not guarantee that the actual energy used in Rhode Island came from a renewable source, nor does it prohibit any utilities from supplying energy generated by fossil fuel, it does result in the generation of a corresponding amount of renewable energy in the region and encourages construction of renewable projects," stated the state legislature. The bill is sponsored by Representative Deborah Ruggiero.