Its been a big week for solar in the United States. Topping the list, this week Elon Musk moved closer to his goal of world domination as the boards of Tesla and SolarCity approved an agreement to merge the two companies. Before you get too excited, remember that shareholders of both companies still have to approve this deal, and Mercom Capitals Raj Prabhu notes that there is still a lot of skepticism in the investor community.
The momentum of this deal has brought out announcements from both companies, with SolarCity reporting strong Q2 installation figures, and Tesla reporting that its battery gigafactory in Nevada is on schedule in quarterly results – but giving few details.
Also this week, pv magazine brings you an exclusive interview with SolarWorld CEO Frank Asbeck, who continues to project confidence despite a recent court finding that one of SolarWorlds subsidiaries owes Helmock Semiconductor around $850 million.
Asbeck says that he is still expecting a settlement, and assured pv magazine that the ruling will not affect the companys U.S. subsidiary and its manufacturing in the state of Oregon.
Some big policy news came this week from the East Coast, with a new energy bill in Massachusetts making it the third state to mandate that utilities procure energy storage. Also New York regulators approved the states 50% by 2030 renewable energy mandate, in pretty much the same form has been laid out to date.
But while policy remains important, corporations are in some cases taking the lead in the energy transition. This week we reported that FERC has granted Apple permission to become an independent power producer, and to sell electricity from its multiple solar holdings across the nation into the wholesale market.
Thats all for this week, but be sure to check the pv magazine USA site week as we bring you more quarterly results from leading companies, and perhaps more news on the Tesla/SolarCity acquisition.
This content is protected by copyright and may not be reused. If you want to cooperate with us and would like to reuse some of our content, please contact: editors@pv-magazine.com.
Popular content
Share
By submitting this form you agree to pv magazine using your data for the purposes of publishing your comment.
Your personal data will only be disclosed or otherwise transmitted to third parties for the purposes of spam filtering or if this is necessary for technical maintenance of the website. Any other transfer to third parties will not take place unless this is justified on the basis of applicable data protection regulations or if pv magazine is legally obliged to do so.
You may revoke this consent at any time with effect for the future, in which case your personal data will be deleted immediately. Otherwise, your data will be deleted if pv magazine has processed your request or the purpose of data storage is fulfilled.
Further information on data privacy can be found in our Data Protection Policy.