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
As previously announced in our Aug 2024 newsletter that LS Power would acquire Algonquin Power & Utilities Corp’s renewable energy business, this transaction closed on Jan 8th, 2025 and created a new company, Clearlight Energy.
UK-based Gore Street Energy Storage Fund and partner LS Energy Solutions completed the Big Rock BESS project (200 MW/400 MWh) which it acquired from Avantus (owned by KKR) in 2023.
On Jan 16, 2025 a fire broke out at Moss Landing BESS facility which was the largest energy storage facility in the U.S. at 750MW/3,000MWh, alongside a natural gas plant also owned by Vistra.
NineDot, an ESS Developer backed by Carlyle, Manulife, CIT, SMBC, and NY Green Bank among others, secured $65M to purchase up to 100MW/400MWh of batteries to support 20 BESS projects in NYC.
Shrimper wins $50M settlement from Taiwanese Formosa Plastics for plastic nurdle discharge into the Port Lavaca Bay in Texas, brought through a lawsuit leveraging the Clean Water Act’s provision for regular citizens to petition for enforcement of environmental law where state regulators have failed.
The US DOT granted the Port of Houston and Linde $25M to build and operate a pipeline-based hydrogen refueling station. Details on the capacity have not been released.
EDF Renewables and Enbridge reached COD on the 577MW Fox Squirrel Solar project in Ohio with Amazon as the sole offtaker.
Prevalon, Mitsubishi Power America’s dedicated BESS development arm, provided investor-owned Idaho power with a 200 MW/800 MWh BESS.
JA Solar subsidiary Donghai JA Solar Technology Co. was added to the US’s forced labor list and prevented from importing to the US
Following President Trump’s announcements to end to the electric vehicle mandate and suspend offshore wind leasing, Italian company Prysmian informed Massachusetts officials it will not build a $200M cable factory it had proposed in 2021.
Recent Personnel Moves and Promotions
ION Storage Systems, a solid state battery company championing ceramics and lithium, made multiple senior appointments including Jorge Diaz Schneider as CEO, David McKenery as President and General Counsel, and Eric Lind as Chief Commercial Officer.
Morgan Advanced Materials, a UK-based specialty manufacturer, which provides ceramic materials for solar panels, thermal insulation for BESS and fuel cells, brush grades for wind turbines, and carbon seals for EVs amongst other things announced Damien Caby will take over as CEO effective July 1st, 2025 when the current CEO, Pete Raby, enters retirement.
Also in the UK, former Director of Energy Transition Investments, Eric Knive left Aker Horizons which acquired a majority stake in wind and solar developer Mainstream Renewable Power in 2021 and entered a partnership with Masdar (Abu Dhabi Future Energy Co) in October 2024 to explore green hydrogen, to join Gridworks, a development and investment platform principally targeting equity investments in transmission, distribution and off-grid electricity.
After nearly 20 years working for the State of Indiana including 11 in the Indiana Department of Environmental Management, Brian Rockenseuss joined Keramida, an environmental consulting firm, as President.
Competitive Power Ventures welcomed Sami Ghantous as SVP of Renewables E&C from Cypress Creek Renewables where he was SVP of EPCM.
Former Country Manager for North America with GoodWe, Michael Mendik joined NeoVolta, an ESS provider, as Chief Operating Officer.
Leaving MUFG where he was previously Executive Director and SVP of Project Finance and Origination for Power & Renewables and Oil & Gas Midstream for North America, is Alberto Mihelcic Bazzana. He joined GIP as Managing Director for Equity Underwriting in NYC.
NovaSource Power, a company that provides operations and maintenance (O&M) services for renewable energy assets, gained a new Head of Business Development for Latin America and North America, Carlos St. James, previously with VOLA Lithium, a private equity fund investing in lithium.
After a short stint with CBRE, former Design Lead for Commercial Charging in North America with Tesla and Navy submariner, Harrison Palmer, joined EVgo as Director of Development Engineering in San Diego.
BrightSpot Automation, a specialist company in technologies that improve the performance of solar through electroluminescent cameras, UV fluorescent tests, and other means, hired a new Photovoltaics Technologies, Jared Friedl, and a Software Engineer, Aileen Ma, to the team.
What the Market is Talking About: President Trump’s Climate Actions
| Normally, for our January newsletter, our topic is “A Year in Review” where we look at the top news stories from the previous year to bring us insight on how the industry performed, look at trends that developed, and highlight any insight for the year ahead. This year, however, we are going to postpone. With energy and climate having taken such a prominent seat at the President’s table during Trump’s first 10 days in office, we feel the need to postpone the Year in Review to cover current happenings. So, let’s talk about what actions President Trump has taken so far and what this means for the industry. 1. Pulling out of the Paris Agreement: This means the federal government will not try to meet emissions goals outlined in the treaty and will cease financial aid to developing countries in support of their climate mitigation goals. When Trump tried to pull out in 2017, there was a 3-year waiting period which made the withdrawal largely unsuccessful since the U.S. was only out of the agreement from Nov 20th, 2020 to Jan 20th, 2021 when President Biden took office and rejoined. In reaction to the U.S.’s attempt, other nations such as Germany, Italy, and France indicated they would increase their efforts to mitigate climate change to fill the gap. This time around, there is only a 1-year waiting period, so it is more likely the U.S. will successfully remote itself. It will be interesting to see which countries step up. 2. Declaring a National Energy Emergency: This order talks about expediting energy and infrastructure projects including the use of eminent domain, directs agencies to use emergency authority to lease, site, produce, and generate energy resources, to facilitate consultations under the Endangered Species Act (ESA) within 30 days and for the Secretary of the Interior to convene quarterly to consider applications for exemptions under the ESA, and for the Secretary of Defense, Secretary of Energy, and Interior Secretary to recommend remedies for vulnerabilities across the energy sector. It is worth noting that solar and wind were specifically left out of the defined list of energy types and resources in this executive order though geothermal is included. 3. Pausing leases for Offshore Wind: Offshore Continental Shelf leases have been halted for new and renewing offshore wind but does not apply to oil, gas, minerals, or environmental conservation. For an industry that is already struggling to get its footing in the U.S., this order does not help and will likely effect more than half of all 4. Rolling back the EV mandate: While the EV mandate was no more than a non-binding goal for the U.S. to reach 50% of new vehicles sold by 2030 to be EVs, it still means that the federal government likely will not upgrade government fleets to EVs and funding for nationwide EV charging infrastructure will be stopped. S&P Global believes this will adjust the U.S.’s trajectory from 30% EV adoption by 2030 to 25% by 2030. 5. Freezing federal financial assistance: A memo issued on Mon, Jan 27th that was quickly rescinded on Wed, Jan 29th, could have effected not only federal loans and grants for R&D, building U.S.-based manufacturing capability, and development of energy projects especially in underserved communities and on indigenous peoples’ lands. While the courts were able to stop the memo from going into effect, it is likely that government workers behind the scene are looking for ways to enforce the President’s intent in other ways. While the coming weeks, months, and years will likely be tumultuous as the government rolls out more guidance and restrictions, and industry leaders galvanize lawyers interpret the effects, Megawatt will continue to keep a pulse on the market and provide snapshots each month in our newsletter. Sources: https://www.federalregister.gov/presidential-documents/executive-orders https://www.jdsupra.com/legalnews/executive-order-declaring-a-national-8178364/ https://heatmap.news/plus/the-fight/spotlight/trump-executive-order-wind https://www.pbs.org/newshour/nation/heres-what-to-know-about-trumps-executive-actions-on-climate-and-environment https://www.automotivedive.com/news/trump-executive-orders-tariffs-evs-emissions-gm-ford/737927/ |
Talent Insights: Sentiment of Turmoil & Uncertainty
Given all the uncertainty in the market as the Trump Administration rolls out mandates and orders reversing much of what the Biden Administration put together over the last 4 years, it is no surprise that there is turmoil and hesitancy in the market.
Naturally, with offshore wind having already faced a number of challenges over the past half a decade from COVID-induced supply chain disruptions to inflation and now the President’s order to halt new and renewing wind leases, there seems to be a significant portion of the offshore wind employee pool looking to make a move to a more stable industry. For employers, this is a good opportunity to take on willing employees versus enduring a tough headhunting process.
From our conversations with people in solar, BESS, onshore wind, and other renewable sectors, we are seeing more hesitancy in switching jobs and a wait-and-see attitude prevailing. This seems to stem from the uncertainty of what the Administration will be willing to fund, permit, lease, etc as well as uncertainty over forthcoming tariffs and how they will effect project financials and the willingness of investors to lend. We get the sense that people are generally coming into the New Year with goals to take on more responsibility and to advance their careers but are not sure that Q1 is the ideal time to do so.
So, for employers looking to hire, it could be helpful to have candid conversations with candidates about your company’s financial strength, plans to weather any storms (ex: pauses in funding, delays in permitting, etc), and commitments to employee well-being (ex: flexible work arrangements, severance packages).
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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.