Los Angeles Times
- Nov 18 Investment firm Silver Lake announced plans Wednesday to nearly quadruple the size of its initial stake in rooftop solar power giant SolarCity. Silver Lake Kraftwerk, Silver Lake's energy and resource innovation fund, has agreed to invest $100 million, while Elon Musk, SolarCity’s chairman, invests $10 million, and Lyndon Rive, SolarCity’s chief executive, contributes $3 million, Silver Lake said. SolarCity’s stock rose almost 4 percent on the news.
Silicon Valley Business Journal
- Nov 18 A photovoltaic array being christened Friday on 62 acres of University of California Davis land will generate 14 percent of the electricity used by the campus. The 16.3-megawatt array will be the largest solar power unit on any California college campus. Announced last year, the utility scale array was designed and built by San Jose-based SunPower Corp., which will own and operate it. The company completed design and development of the array in just over a year.
Solar Industry Magazine
- Nov 18 Southern Power has completed the issuance of $1 billion in green bonds. An amount equal to the net proceeds of the green bonds will be allocated to eligible renewable energy projects, including solar and wind generating facilities located in the U.S. Southern Power has assembled its green energy portfolio through the development or acquisition of 21 solar and wind projects in the U.S., representing approximately 1,550 megawatts of capacity owned, under development, or under contract.
Sacramento Business Journal
- Nov 17 Companies in California and Quebec were expected to spend $908 million on a cap-and-trade auction held Tuesday that essentially operates as California’s penalty for pollution. Tuesday marked the 14th quarterly auction since California's cap-and-trade program began in late 2012. The auctions have been held jointly with Quebec since last year. The program affects petroleum refiners and wholesalers and several hundred large industrial firms, including major food processors, cement plants, and steel mills.
Utility Dive
- Nov 17 In 2016, Oregon’s utilities and energy sector stakeholders will have the chance to set the bar on the value and benefits of energy storage. In the new year, the Oregon Public Utility Commission will convene a proceeding on the state's new energy storage law, which could produce a template for the rest of the nation. While Oregon's law is actually the second in the nation, with California enacting a storage mandate in 2013, sector stakeholders say the law is special in the guidance it provides to regulators on how to value energy storage technologies.
PV Magazine
- Nov 19 SunEdison, Inc. has signed 20-year power-purchase agreements with six school districts across California. These agreements will see more than 9 megawatts of solar installed at 18 elementary, middle, and high schools throughout the state, which is expected to save taxpayers more than $30 million in energy costs over the next 20 years.
Bloomberg
- Nov 18 SunPower Corp. agreed to build three solar farms in China’s Inner Mongolia region with a capacity of 170 megawatts. When completed next year, SunPower, Tianjin Zhonghuan Semiconductor Co., and another unidentified partner will own the three plants, the San Jose, California-based panel manufacturer and developer said in a regulatory filing Wednesday.
Central Valley Business Times
- Nov 17 Two Bushnell family farms in the Central Valley are going solar, contracting with Suniva Inc., a U.S. maker of high-efficiency crystalline silicon solar cells. The panels will bring 824 kilowatts of solar energy to Bushnell Farms and Three and One Farms, both operated by the Bushnell family, an almond grower in Buttonwillow.
