7 Things Worth Reading This Week

EnergySage looks at the benefits of consumption-only batteries for resi customers. These “no-backup batteries” do not offer emergency backup power and won’t work when the grid is down but have a lower price tag – $3k instead of up to $9k. They are best for resi customers in areas with TOU rates, unfavorable net metering policies, and who don’t experience many power outages.

SolarEdge is exiting the energy storage market, shutting down its division. The result will be a loss of 500 jobs, mostly in South Korea and a $7.5 million savings this quarter.

The industry saw $71 billion in investment Q3, with clean investments accounting for 5% of total private U.S. structure, equipment and consumer goods spending. This means a 12% increase year-over-year rise and a 2% increase from Q2 of 2024. But the US is still off track to meet the 2023 goals.

This SPW article digs into the appearance of a draft of SEIA’s SEIA 101 standard which offers guidance for how companies can trace the history of solar products from raw materials to finished goods so they can ID and address forced-labor risks in their supply chain. It looks at forced labor and country of origin compliance and responsibilities defined via Incoterms.

Funding for manufacturing, project dev, and more continues to roll in as seen with three hundred-million-plus deals recently struck. These include Silfab Solar closing $100 million to scale an SC solar cell manufacturing plant, Qcells resi solar financing platform EnFin completed its asset-backed securities transaction totaling $324.5 million, and Pivot Energy secured a $450 million debt warehouse facility backed by three major investors.

Generac rolls out its next gen home energy storage system, the PWRcell 2 Series. Solar Builder talks with them about new features, installation specs, the differences between the PWRcell 2 and PWRcell 2 MAX, and how this offering fits in the broader Generac home energy ecosystem. The video is below.

Adaptive Construction Solutions and three of its largest customers discuss how they build apprenticeships in solar for veterans, underserved communities, and the next gen of clean energy leaders. The discuss investing $10 million in its Apprenticeship Innovation Center, strategies for successful apprenticeship implementation like recruitment, training, and evaluation, and more. The video is below.