North America

After allegedly stripping his company of assets to launch another business and failing to pay under the terms of an earlier settlement, Weili Su has been ordered to shell out nearly $14 million to three former Sky Holdings executives.

Macquarie has closed on funding for a third portion of a 340 MWh project in Southern California, and LADWP is planning 1.8 GW of batteries.

Idaho Power has agreed to pay $21.75/MWh for 120 MW of solar power in a 20-year power purchase agreement with Jackpot Holdings. The solar facility will offset a soon-to-close coal plant in Nevada starting in 2022.

Scientists at MIT have developed a new type of “hybrid” cathode for lithium batteries, which they say could increase their energy density beyond that of current commercial lithium-ion battery designs.

Sunrun made a splash at the BNEF Summit in New York City at a time when utilities are increasingly struggling to adapt to new realities. But distributed energy resources have a long way to go to play a major role, and we will still need additional energy sources in future power systems.

The Independent Electricity System Operator (IESO) in the Canadian province of Ontario has revealed plans to launch annual capacity auctions in a bid to reduce electricity costs for households.

Researchers at Stanford University have developed a type of electrode which is highly resistant to salt corrosion, therefore allowing them to produce hydrogen using seawater. Applied at a larger scale, this development could potentially cut the cost of power-to-gas applications by greatly increasing the amount of water available.

The new budget looks to lower the cost of energy for households by turning to distributed energy, energy efficiency and community energy programs. To this end, several billion Canadian dollars will be spent.

Chinese module manufacturing giant JinkoSolar today published its financial results for the full year 2018. While the company achieved an impressive 16% growth in shipments over the previous year, its total revenue took a 5.4% hit compared to 2017, thanks to falling module prices throughout the year.

Canadian Solar recorded net income of $237.1 million in 2018, from $99.6 million a year earlier, on annual PV module shipments of 6.62 GW.