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
- Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory predicts solar installation will top 24GW in the U.S. in 2023, up from 10GW in 2022.
- Raptor Maps, a data company that uses autonomous drones to view and analyze solar farms, announced that it has recovered 3GW of lost capacity after viewing 100GW of solar, enough to power 16 million homes.
- The 482MW Daggett Solar plus 280 MW Storage facility reached commercial operations, developed by Clearway Energy Group, and hosted in California.
- Gov Kathy Hochul vetoed a bill that would have allowed Long Beach, NY to negotiate with Equinor to build an underground conduit and electrical distribution cable system for the facility for Empire 2.
- New York State Public Service also rejected requests for price adjustments for Orsted’s Sunrise Wind and Equinor and BP’s Empire Wind 1 and 2, and Beacon Wind to provide inflation relief.
- Partners Group committed to investing EUR 1 billion in growth capital to Exus, a 3rd party asset management and project development services company for utility-scale solar, wind, and storage.
- NYSERDA launched an auction for a 12-20MW solar site atop the old Benson Mines, about 2.5 hours northeast of Syracuse, and will be accepting proposals until November 20th, 2023.
- TransAlta Renewables was delisted from the Toronto Stock Exchange and taken private by TransAlta Corporation.
- Marriott International is partnering with EV Connect to provide turnkey charging solutions including set-up, management, maintenance, upgrades, and consumer support.
- Hystar AS, a Norwegian hydrogen developer, plans to enter the USA in 2024 and build a multi-gigawatt factory in the USA by 2027.
- Crowley, and Morgan Stanley Investment Management, formed a JV to repurpose maritime ports in the United States for offshore wind uses and lease them to wind developers and companies that need them for manufacturing and assembly of components.
- Guzman Energy and National Renewable Solutions, a Blackrock company, executed a PPA for Guzman to offtake NRS’s 140MW Shallow Basket solar farm and for Guzman to operate a joined 50MW BESS.
Recent Personnel Moves and Promotions
- SunGrid Solutions, a utility-scale solar and BESS engineering and construction company, welcomed Joseph (Jody) Snodgrass as Chief Executive Officer in Houston, TX, formerly in Indianapolis, IN as Vice President of Innovation and Process for Infrastructure and Energy Alternatives, Inc.
- Taking the helm as Chief Executive Officer of PosiGen, a residential solar provider focused on solar leasing for low-to-moderate income homeowners, is Peter Sharper, a seasoned CEO and lower middle market investor.
- Matt Preskenis joined Navisun as SVP of Business Development from Pivot Energy where he was SVP of Strategic Partnerships
- Relocating from Michigan to California, Michael Delaney accepted a new position as Vice President of Utility Partnerships and Innovation at PG&E.Ron Wedeking joined Verogy, a C&I solar developer, as Vice President of Development for Strategic Markets based in Connecticut from Pfister Energy, another East Coast C&I solar developer.
- Coming from GE Offshore Wind to Crowley Wind Services is Christy Guthman who accepted a new role as Vice President of Business Development for Wind Services, based in Boston, MA.
- Exus North American Management Partners welcomed Jim Sardonia as Vice President of Technical Development from Scout Clean Energy where he was Senior Director of Wind and Solar Resource Assessment in Pittsburg, PA.
- Northland Power gained a new Director of Origination, Rob Tennent, in their Calgary, Canada office, previously Manager of Origination for Capital Power.
- Luis Huang left NextEra Energy in California where he was EV Project Manager for Commercial Building EV Infrastructure to join Current Solutions as Project Manager.
- Ian McGinnis joined Ocean Winds as Financial Manager for Offshore Wind in Boston, previously with Greenskies Clean Focus as a Project Finance Associate.
What the market is talking about: A cold winter ahead
According to the Old Farmer’s Almanac, it is going to be a colder than usual winter this year with snowfall above normal. Stryker the harbor seal, who lives in the Aquarium of Niagara in Canada, also confirmed it will be a cold winter ahead. For those who may scoff at the predictions of a seal, possibly citing that Punxsutawney Phil only has a 39% accuracy rate in predicting the onset of spring, Stryker is currently 3-for-3 on his weather predictions.
The positive news however, is that the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) believes consumers who use natural gas for residential heating will have lower bills this winter. It predicts that the spot price for natural gas on the Henry Hub will be around $3.12 thousand cubic feet (McF), almost half the price of last which averaged $5.66/McF in November 2022.
Additionally, EIA published its energy forecast for 2024 which predicts the share of renewable energy generation that will supply the nation will increase from 22% to 25% in 2024 and that natural gas will decrease from 42% to 41%. Carrying the lion’s share of the load is solar, with 25 GW of capacity expected to come online in 2024 followed by wind generation with an estimated 8 GW of capacity to be added.
Talent Acquisition Insights: Out with Non-Competes
Building off President Joe Birden’s Executive Order 14036 on Promoting Competition in the American Economy, the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) and Federal Trade Commission (FTC) signed a new agreement outlining ways the agencies will work together to bring more protections to workers, specifically focusing on dispersing labor market concentration, one-sided contract terms, and helping laborers in the “gig economy” to have more flexibility.
Restrictive contract provisions such as non-competes and requirements for employees to repay employers for training provides are among some of the areas the Memorandum of Understanding between the two agencies seeks to investigate. Anticompetitive practices are also a topic on the agenda which the FTC and DOL and includes looking at non-disclosure agreements that are written so broadly that it effectively precludes a worker from working the same field after the conclusion of the worker’s employment with the current employer.
Potentially more surprising is that the document defines the term “worker” as including not only employees, but also individuals classified as contractors, externs, interns, volunteers, apprentices, and sole proprietors that provide a service to a client or customer.
While an implementation date for the proposed new rules has not been set, now is a good time for HR and Legal officers to come together to review employment contracts, service provider agreements, internship/apprenticeship program offers, and other similar documents because, according to the publication document, the rules should go into effect 180 days after publication of the final rule.
Hot jobs!
- Business Development Manager, Solar Testing & Certification, East Coast
- Director of Finance, Solar Developer, Non-profit, California
- Senior Electrical Engineer, Wind and Solar, Remote
- Partner/Junior Partner, Law Firm focused on Renewables and Cleantech, Remote
- Manager or Associate, Utility-Scale Solar Project Development, Remote, Texas
- Senior Analyst/Analyst for Project Finance, Utility-Scale Solar Developer – MD, CA, or South Korea
- Senior Engineer for E&C – Utility-Scale Solar & Wind Developer – South Korea
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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.