Eric Wesoff
Tesla to hide ‘solar test-house’ under tents at California site
CNBC has uncovered a recently granted building permit that allows Tesla to put up “two canopy covers” over its new “solar test houses.” Earlier this year, Tesla CEO Elon Musk announced that 2019 was “the year of the solar roof.”
1366 Technologies adds $18m in pursuit of cheaper silicon solar cells
The company’s technology falls into the ‘kerfless’ wafer category: Instead of sawing silicon ingots into wafers, a time-consuming and wasteful process, 1366’s approach forms wafers directly, using molten silicon.
Hanergy: From thin-film solar savior to mass lay-offs at MiaSolé, Alta, Solibro and Global Solar
Unannounced lay-offs with no pay or benefits have left more than 600 American workers, 180 employees in Germany and thousands in China unemployed and in the dark. Some of those affected have told pv magazine their story.
Residential solar set new US record in the last quarter with 712 MW
The U.S. residential solar market – and 15 states – are at record highs according to analyst WoodMac’s ‘don’t call it a comeback’ Q3 report, driven by new market forces. The research firm held its 2019 U.S. solar forecast at 13 GW.
BlackRock aims $2.5bn at solar, wind and battery storage
The good news is that the world’s largest fund manager, BlackRock, just closed $1 billion of a record $2.5 billion fund dedicated to solar, wind and energy storage projects. The bad news is that the $2.5 billion fund is a tiny fraction of BlackRock’s $6.96 trillion balance sheet and small change compared to BlackRock’s $17.5 billion investment in coal.
Elon Musk calls for an ‘immediate’ and ‘significant increase’ in Tesla’s solar installs
Tesla was once the unquestioned leader in the U.S. residential rooftop market with a market share of around 33 percent, but today, the company is No. 3, and its market share during the first quarter was a little more than 6 percent.
Hanergy-owned Alta Devices reportedly lays off 250 employees without notice
The U.S. business built and sold record-setting gallium-arsenide solar cells but its parent has seemingly run out of patience. Having failed to give its workers notice of the move, Hanergy is either in contravention of U.S. employment law, ‘faltering’ or subject to ‘unforeseen business circumstances’.
