Interconnection: Renewable Energy USA
Welcome to Megawatt Recruitment’s monthly newsletter to keep you connected to what’s going on in the renewable energy industry in the United States and provide more insight, knowledge, and connection to the people and companies who drive our industry.
What People Are Talking About
- Korean-German company QCells announced a partnership with U.S. PE firm True Green Capital to install 450 MW of community, C&I, and utility-scale solar in the U.S.
- Clearway Energy signed a PPA for the 55MW Dan’s Mountain wind project in Maryland with Constellation Energy to build the $180 M project on former strip mining land.
- Scout Clean Energy signed a VPPA with Zoetis, a pharmaceutical company, to offtake 50 MW from the 180 MW Heart of Texas Wind Farm project, operational since 2020.
- New York state has approved 42.5 MW of BESS projects year-to-date including what will be the state’s largest solar canopy at 12 MW, designed and constructed by AlphaStruxure, and one battery that will replace a 15 MW retiring gas turbine by Elevate Renewables. Unfortunately, NY also cancelled three proposed offshore wind projects.
- In a bittersweet move, Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland announced that the Bureau of Land Management has permitted 29+ GW of clean energy on public lands – a good move toward meeting the Biden Administration’s clean energy goals but a sad move away from conservation of open spaces and pristine landscapes.
- Secretary Haaland is also expected to announce 12 offshore wind development opportunities in the Gulf of Maine, New York Bight, Atlantic Ocean, Gulf of Mexico, the Pacific near Oregon, California, and Hawaii and possibly a U.S. territory.
- $7 B in federal grants were announced for residential solar projects serving low-to-moderate income communities through the Solar for All program.
- Mercom Capital Group reported the closing of two major battery manufacturing investment deals: Sweden’s Northvolt closing $5 B in debt financing and France’s Automotive Cells Company closing $4.7B.
- We have heard that Dandelion Energy, a geothermal developer mainly focused on residential and commercial-scale projects, shut down its Retrofit division and will focus on integrating geothermal energy into new builds only going forward.
- Iberdrola’s latest quarterly report showed its U.S. solar capacity rose from 529 MW in Q1 2023 to 733MW in Q1 2024, a 39% increase.
Recent Personnel Moves and Promotions
Anja-Isabel Dotzenrath has bid adieu to oil major bp as she plans her retirement from the position of EVP of Gas and Low Carbon Energy and William Lin, previously bp’s EVP of Regions, Corporates and Solutions will take her place.
Global EPC McDermott, which is especially active in offshore wind, appointed a new EVP and Chief Operating Officer, Maurizio Coratella who joins from Italian start-up Dri D’Italia SpA which is focused on reducing carbon in the steel industry, previously COO of Onshore E&C with Saipem, another global leader in offshore engineering and construction.
Wood, another EPC active in offshore wind, brought on Jesse Stanley as President of Americas Operations where she will oversee O&M and brownfield energy security solutions. She was previously with Shell in commercial and operational roles.
The shipbuilding division of Korean conglomerate Hanwha Group, has hired Philippe Levy as President of Hanwha Ocean. He was previously President of SBM Offshore Americas.
PivotGen, a utility-scale wind and solar project development and re-powering company started by former Goldwind executives, hired Robert Dewechter as SVP of Asset Management, previously with Carlyle Power Partners’ Cogentrix Energy as Regional Vice President for PJM and ERCOT.
SunGrid Energy, a BESS provider, gained a new Senior Director of Business Development in Tom DeRosa, formerly with Fractal EMS, a energy management software provider, as VP of Sales and Marketing based in Hartford, CT.
Previously with SunEast Development, Dave Swanson now represents Hodson Energy as SVP of Development and is based in NYC.
In Germany, battery developer CMBlu Energy AG appointed a new CEO, Constantin Eis, who was previously CEO for Lichtblick SE.
UK-based renewable energy developer, RES, hired a new CFO, Henrick Brandt, who joins from Telco InfraCo (TDC NET), relocating from Denmark to the UK.
Duke Energy, a regulated utility HQ’ed in North Carolina, announced a set of executive leadership appointments including the promotion of Harry Sideris to President of Duke Energy effective April 1st, reporting directly to the CEO, Lynn Good. He was formerly EVP of Customer Experience, Solutions, and Services. The EVP and Chief Commercial Officer, Steve Young, will retire but continue with the company as a Senior Advisor.
Additionally, at Duke Energy, Bonnie Titone will join the senior management committee as SVP and Chief Administrative Officer with responsibility for IT, cyber, supply chain, facilities, and real estate. Previously, she was SVP and Chief Information Officer.
Also, Sasha Weintraub will join the committee as SVP and Chief Customer Officer which will encompass new customer products and services, pricing and rate design, economic development, and wholesale customers. He was previously SVP and Head of Natural Gas.
Scott Batson, also at Duke Energy, was promoted to SVP and Chief Power Grid Operations Officer, previously Chief Distribution Officer.
Scale Microgrids, a microgrid developer based in New Jersey and backed by Warburg Pincus, brought on Tom Scali as Senior Business Development Manager, formerly with Canadian Solar and Enel X in similar roles.
Market Insights: Commercial Redox Flow Batteries
Have you ever wondered if commercial redox flow batteries (RFB) for energy storage systems (ESS) exist? Well, in partnership with my friend Naphtal Haya on the website Energy Storage Chronicles you can read about them here. The article covers key commercial trends in the RFB industry.
Here is a quick summary of the 5 companies he dives into and their products. Definitely read the article for the technical specifications and key competencies!
- ESS Inc. — U.S. based design and manufacturer of iron flow batteries (IFB). Their IFB is a hybrid flow battery and they produce C&I and utility-scale versions.
- Invinity Energy Systems Plc —Founded through the merger of UK-based RedT Energy and U.S.-based Avalon Battery, it not only manufactures vanadium RFBs (VRFBs) but also serves as an EPC for VRFBs globally.
- Largo Inc — A Canadian vertically integrated vanadium company with a mine in Brazil that also manufactures VRFBs. It has a 6.1 MWh project in Spain with Enel Green Power and a 3MWh demonstration project with National Grid in Massachusetts.
- RedFlow Limited — An Australian RFB company producing zinc-bromide RFBs for residential, C&I, and utility-scale.
- VRB Energy Inc— A Canadian VRFB maker that is owned 90% by Ivanhoe Electric, and is focused on utility-scale storage.
Talent Insights: Potential-based hiring
With technology for renewable energy constantly advancing and the applications for products continuing to evolve, it is not surprising that there are many skill gaps when completely new types of jobs are created.
When most hiring managers craft a job description, it typically has a mix of hard skills and soft skills that are broken down into must-haves (ex: the requirements section) and nice-to-haves (sometimes written as a description of the ideal applicant profile). However, if you know that the skills required for your cutting edge product or service are so niche that making them a must-have would restrict your candidate population so much that hiring would be nearly impossible, what alternatives do you have?
One alternative is Potential Based Hiring (PBH) versus Skill Based Hiring (SBH). The concept might sound intuitive: rather than hire someone based on their educational credentials or skills garnered in previous jobs, the hiring manager will look to hire someone based on their potential to grasp the new product’s technology or the service offering. The more difficult question is how to implement it.
Here are some ideas of how to integrate PBH into your recruitment process:
- Behavioral interview questions. Ask a candidate about previous experiences where they had to quickly grasp a new concept. Ask questions gauging their interest in continuous education and self-mastery of complex ideas.
- Psychometric testing. Work with a psychometric testing agency to craft a test that teaches someone a new concept quickly and tests their ability to apply that concept. This could be numeric, patterns, logic, written, or oral.
- Reference checks. If a former boss is willing to share insight on the applicant’s ability to learn, process feedback, and share knowledge, this give valuable insight into the applicant’s potential while employed with your company.
We hope to be a resource to our readers. Please don’t hesitate to reach out for more ways to integrate PBH into your hiring process.
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Cover photo credit: Werner Slocum / NREL
Thank you for joining us for another issue of Interconnection: Renewable Energy USA. We hope you enjoyed it and we look forward to keeping in touch and exchanging ideas, insights, and opinions. If you are a company considering hiring, we welcome the opportunity to present our services and capabilities. If you are a candidate, please check our jobs page or reach out to us to discuss your background, skills, and future aspirations.