What Changed In The Solar Energy & Storage Markets In October?
What happened in the solar & storage industries in October? A lot! Below is a concise summary of the most notable solar and energy storage stories of the month.
cquisitions, Mergers, Investments, & Awards
The largest renewable energy acquisition in history — that big enough for you? Global Infrastructure Partners bought Asia-Pacific’s largest independent renewable energy power producer, Equis Energy, to set the record. The acquisition was for a record $5 billion.
French energy giant Engie (formerly called GDF Suez), which has been acquiring cleantech companies like it’s got nothing better to do, recently made an acquisition of an African off-grid solar company, Fenix.
First Solar’s stock price jumped 20% at the end of October on the back of some strongly positive quarterly finances. It’s been over a year since First Solar’s share price was so high … but it’s still far below 2007–2011 levels.
Indian giant Acme Solar Holdings is aiming to raise Rs 2,200 crore ($335 million) in its initial public offering (IPO). You buyin’?
Groupe Renault knows where the world is headed, and it initiated a new Renault Energy Services business entity in order to try to capitalize.
On the other side of the pond, a new consortium of battery tech firms named Imperium3 New York announced it is investing $130 million over the next 5 years to commercialize “an innovative technology for making more efficient and less expensive lithium ion batteries.”
Meanwhile, UK startup Brill Power won a €100,000 prize at EnergyFest in Amsterdam for finding a way to significantly extend the life of lithium-ion batteries.
Solar Market Fun Facts
& Big Projects
Solar leaders paused what they were doing to get down to Puerto Rico and help the struggling, threatened populations there. Tesla, sonnen, and Sunrun were a few of the biggest names down in the hurricane-slammed trenches, but small-scale solar players known by members of the CleanTechnica community also went down — and are still there.
6 of the 10 largest solar power states are red states. Republicans support solar! … Republicans in Congress should too!
Australia may install a full 1 gigawatt (GW) of rooftop solar power in 2017 — 1 GW!
Rooftop solar actually rose to 48% of South Australia’s electricity demand in October.
New solar + storage is even starting to beat old coal power plants in Australia. That’s what some have claimed is the more important “grid parity” crossover.
Meanwhile, in the US, renewable energy grew 10% in 2017. Over 10 years, US solar energy grew 4500% and wind energy grew 350%.
Speaking of rooftop solar, Sunrun currently has over 2000 orders in for its solar + storage Brightbox offering in California and Hawaii.
But the place where home energy storage is really taking off is Australia. More than 7,000 battery storage systems were installed across Oz in the first half of 2017.
Tesla’s energy storage business is booming too, with its biggest Powerwall installation and its biggest Powerpack installation coming up in Australia.
Europe isn’t fully left out, and BMW cut the ribbon on its Battery Storage Farm Leipzig while commemorating the production of the company’s 100,000th BMW i3.
