Panasonic Promotes Authorized Installer Program Participants

David Lopez

Panasonic has elevated 12 authorized members of its Panasonic Installer Program to elite- and premium-level status, expanding the number of homeowners who will gain access to Panasonic’s Evervolt home energy solutions portfolio.

“The expanded installer network will give more homeowners the opportunity to purchase high-quality Evervolt solar energy solutions protected by industry leading warranties from a trusted brand with over a century of proven staying power,” says David Lopez, national sales manager, Panasonic Eco Systems North America. 

Elite installers include four in California – American Array Solar & Roofing in Livermore; Blalock Electric Solar DBA Blalock Electric & Solar Inc. in Murrieta; Green Home Systems in Northridge; and SolarNorcal LLC DBA Excite Energy in El Dorado Hills – as well as Public Service Solar in Naples, Fla.; NuWatt Energy in Woburn, Mass; and EGT Solar in Meridian, Idaho.

Premium installers include three in California – Amerigreen Solar in Northridge; Palomar Solar Ltd. in Escondido; and West Coast Appliance Services in El Cajon – and Solar-Ray Inc. in Orlando, Fla.; and RevoluSun Mountain States in Boise, Idaho.

Premium installers will enjoy access to qualified sales leads, marketing assets, training programs and a robust installer portal. Elite installers will also share those benefits and gain first access to new Evervolt products and rebates and preferred access to product availability.

Homeowners who purchase from installers enlisted in the program will receive protection from Panasonic’s long-term warranties. These warranties cover Panasonic solar panels and systems for performance, product, parts and labor for 25 years and battery storage systems for 10 years when installed by a Panasonic authorized solar installer.

Since its introduction in 2016, the Panasonic Installer Program has continued to provide exclusive benefits and business opportunities to its installers who meet the necessary qualifications and maintain Panasonic’s high standard of excellence.

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Enel to Bring Major PV Manufacturing Facility to Oklahoma

Giovanni Bertolino

Enel North America, through its affiliate 3Sun USA LLC, has chosen Inola, Okla., as the site of its new industrial-scale manufacturing facility for innovative, sustainable photovoltaic (PV) cells and modules.

The over 2 million-square-foot, 3 GW factory, about 25 miles east of Tulsa, Okla., represents a planned investment in excess of $1 billion, creating approximately 1,000 new direct permanent jobs by 2025.

Construction is expected to begin in the fall of 2023. First panels should be available to the market by the end of 2024. The project includes the potential for a second phase that would scale the factory to reach 6 GW of annual production, creating an additional 900 new direct jobs.

“Our selection of Oklahoma is a testament to the strength of the Tulsa Port of Inola site, the state’s commitment to workforce development and an attractive investment climate,” says Giovanni Bertolino, head of 3Sun USA. “We are taking a major step forward in developing a state-of-the-art PV factory, bringing hundreds of jobs and millions in long-term tax revenue, while moving Oklahoma to the forefront of renewables manufacturing.”

The planned factory will be among the first in the U.S. to produce solar cells, the fundamental building block of PV modules, and will incorporate a high-performance bifacial heterojunction technology (HJT).

3Sun in Catania (Italy) will begin production of a new HJT solar module in September 2023. The double-sided HJT can secure higher than average energy production, producing approximately 15-20% more electricity than conventional single-sided panels, and offers significant efficiency improvements, with a certified cell efficiency of 24.6%. 

Enel has been present in Oklahoma for over a decade. Its more than $3 billion investment in the state includes 13 wind farms and more than 2 GW of renewable energy generating capacity.

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Developer BlueWave targets ISO-NE’s capacity market, trading and Clean Peak opportunities

The company has a 3GW pipeline of storage projects mainly in Massachusetts and Connecticut, MD storage development Michael Zimmer. These are both at the ‘transmission-scale’ level (35MW+) and the distributed scale which averages around 10MW per project, two of which will be commissioned next year.

He said progressive solar legislation in Massachusetts (like the SMART programme which Energy-Storage.news has written about) has led to a similar ‘duck curve’ of energy generation and consumption seen in Western US states like California, an issue which opens up opportunities for storage.

The business case for storage across the ISO-NE market is based on capacity markets, energy trading and, specifically in Massachusetts, the Clean Peak Energy Standard which incentivise clean energy resources that can be dispatched during peak demand periods. Ancillary services are not an accessible revenue for energy storage in ISO-NE, Zimmer said.

For the capacity market – the Forward Capacity Auction (FCA) – FCA 18 will take place in February 2024 with the results published a month or two later. The FCA secures capacity for three years ahead meaning that FCA 18’s winners can start generating revenues through it in July 2027.

FCA 17 just concluded with around 31GW of capacity procured in total of which a little over 5,000MW was clean energy (solar, wind, energy storage and demand resources). BlueWave plans to bid in 200MW of transmission-scale storage assets to FCA 18 next year.

The firm, which is based in Boston and a certified B Corp, was acquired by investor Axium Infrastructure in March 2022. It was the first to develop a community solar project in Massachusetts but spun out its community solar servicing to its own company, Perch Energy, the year before the Axium deal.

Our sister site PV Tech interviewed BlueWave shortly after the deal as well as spinout Perch Energy about community solar and how to increase local acceptance of projects (Premium access).

Zimmer also discussed the firm’s approach to battery storage augmentation for a piece last week (Premium access).

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BMW, Volvo step up interest in bi-directional charging and vehicle-to-X use cases

That includes using the batteries in electric vehicles (EVs) as a resource to help the utility and others like it manage demand on the grid, and maximise the adoption of renewable energy (vehicle-to-grid or V2G), as well as for homeowners to be able to use their cars as back up power sources if they experience a grid power outage or other service disruption (vehicle-to-home, or V2H).

With 40% of all EVs in the US thought to be on Californian roads, the state makes a good test bed for the different use cases that make up vehicle-to-X (V2X), with a senior PG&E representative stating that V2X can be used to create virtual power plants (VPPs).

 “Clean-powered EVs are vital to the battle against climate change. Using V2X technology to create virtual power plants from EVs can help utilities like ours meet peak electricity demand without the need for non-renewable energy resources,” PG&E VP of utility partnerships and innovation Aaron August said.

“With smart, managed bi-directional charging, we can decarbonize our planet at a lower cost to our customers.”

The pilot project with BMW is assessing what the optimum mix and strategy is for homeowners to leverage stored energy in car batteries, versus drawing power from the grid. For instance, the EV can be charged from the grid at times when the proportion of renewable energy in the generation mix is highest, and be discharged to support the domestic electricity load.

PG&E claimed that results already show that V2H-connected EVs can double the amount of renewable-generated electricity a household can consume on an average day. The pilot will also test various different scenarios a connected vehicle and home might experience.

The pilot extends a collaboration between the pair that has already seen BMW EV drivers in PG&E’s service area get incentives for smart charging their cars at times of day that align with higher renewables production.

That collaboration began in 2015 and with the start of vehicle-to-X testing will continue until March of 2026. As part of the next ongoing step, BMW will develop a test fleet of EVs which are suitable for V2G functions.

In April, California senator Nancy Skinner testified to the state Senate Energy, Utilities and Communications Committee in support of legislation that would require the majority of EVs and charging equipment in California to be equipped with bi-directional charging capabilities.

The state already has a mandate in place that by 2035 all cars sold in California need to be electric, with sales of new internal combustion engine (ICE) cars to be banned.

Volvo Cars invests in bi-directional charger maker dcbel

Swedish automaker Volvo Cars has made an undisclosed investment into Canadian home energy management company dcbel.

Volvo Cars has made a strategic investment in the Montreal-headquartered home energy technology provider. The funding will enable the acceleration of dcbel’s R&D and commercialisation activities, with a focus on the dcbel r16 Home Energy Station, a bi-directional EV charger.

Designed to be paired with onsite rooftop solar PV, the device’s software can automate the management of the home’s energy demand with dcbel claiming that means it can “seamlessly” reduce homes’ environmental impact and cost of running.

That includes smart charging to maximise renewables usage and lower cost, as well as optimising charging schedule to tackle ‘range anxiety’, offer blackout protection, and enable export of power to the grid, which can earn homeowners money.

The company also talked up its V2G capabilities, with the r16 allowing for fleets of car batteries to be aggregated into VPPs.

It is perhaps important to note that Volvo Cars is now a separate entity to Volvo Group, as regular readers of this site might recall the launch of a battery energy storage system (BESS) sub-system product through Volvo Group a couple of months ago.  

“Home Energy Management Systems will play a vital role as we move towards bi-directionality of electric vehicles. Rising energy prices coupled with frequent blackouts are challenges faced by consumers today and our investment in dcbel and their technology can help alleviate those challenges for our customers,” Alexander Petrofski, CEO of Volvo Cars Tech Fund, the VC arm of the car company which invested in dcbel, said.

Read more of Energy-Storage.news’ coverage of developments in the vehicle-to-grid space.

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UK investor Gresham House and NextEra progress large-scale California BESS projects

Gresham House Energy Storage Fund plc (GRID ticker) announced its plans to raise a total of £80 million (US$100 million) in new shares to help fund two solar-plus-storage projects in California, its first venture outside of the UK market, on 18 May.

The projects, called Iliad, will pair 160MW of solar PV with co-located battery energy storage systems (BESS) totalling four hours of duration, though the company did not reveal the MW or MWh capacity.

They are part of a 390MW of projects scheduled for commissioning in 2024, including 230MW of projects in Great Britain/GB (UK excluding Ireland) which will be funded from existing funds.

Gresham House described the Iliad deal as a “broad relationship with a California-based developer comprising the initial purchase of rights to two projects” of 100MW and 60MW each in Southern California. The projects combined will require investment of US$168 million.

Revenues for Iliad will be split evenly between contracted revenues under a 20-year agreement, solar revenues through fixed price power purchase agreements (PPAs) and BESS revenues mainly through energy trading.

The 20-year agreement is likely to be via Resource Adequacy (RA), the framework through which grid operator CAISO ensures there is enough capacity to meet demand without centralised capacity auctions, which requires a four-hour discharge duration.

Gresham House recently reported its full-year 2022 results, revealing better-than-expected ancillary services revenues thanks to delays in new capacity entering the GB market.

NextEra gets go-ahead for 300MW extension to California BESS

In related news, the US Bureau of Land Management (BLM) has approved the Sunlight Storage II Battery Energy Storage System project, an expansion to the existing Desert Sunlight Battery Energy Storage System (pictured above).

The project is being developed by Sunlight Storage II, LLC, part of NextEra Energy Resources. It will see the clean energy arm of utility NextEra Energy add 300MW of BESS capacity to an existing 230MW project which came online in summer last year. Both BESS projects adjoin and optimise the Desert Sunlight Solar Farm, which came online in 2011.

The BLM’s announcement did not say when it expected Sunlight Storage II to come online, but a plan of development (POD) from NextEra said construction would take 10 months. A map of the site, with the existing and new BESS, from the POD is below.

A map of the Desert Sunlight solar and energy storage projects from NextEra. Image: NextEra / Dudek / Bing 2020.

In more related California news, community choice aggregator (CCA) Peninsula Clean Energy has secured the offtake of a 45MW BESS under a 15-year deal with project owner Terra-Gen. Peninsula will receive the energy from the four-hour BESS project in San Bernardino country, which will be operational in 2024.

CCAs have been very active in procuring power from BESS projects and at the forefront of tying up with lithium-ion systems with durations beyond four hours too.

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Masdar to develop 2GW renewables, 500MWh battery storage with Uzbekistan government

According to Masdar, Uzbekistan plans to achieve 7GW of solar and 5GW of wind capacity by the end of the decade, equivalent to 25% of its energy mix.

The Central Asian country has been working with Masdar since 2019. It reached financial close on three PV facilities in Uzbekistan with a combined capacity of approximately 877MW in April. The projects will be under construction in the first half of this year and are expected to begin operations in 2024.

Another Middle East-headquartered energy solutions provider, Saudi Arabi-headquartered power producer ACWA Power, signed agreements earlier this year with Uzbekistan’s government for a deal that includes energy storage as well as renewables. That agreement comprised two solar PV plants adding up to 1,400MW generation capacity and three energy storage projects of 400MW.

To read the full version of this story, visit PV Tech, where it first appeared.

Additional reporting for this Energy-Storage.news version by Andy Colthorpe.

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Northvolt completes construction of Poland ESS factory

“The facility is powered solely by electricity from renewable sources. This aligns with our company’s business model, which focuses on using only green energy in all our factories located in Poland, Sweden, and Germany, as well as utilising recycled materials,” said Robert Chryc-Gawrychowski, CEO of Northvolt Poland.

The company is aiming to open the facility and start production by the end of the year. When first announced in late 2021, Northvolt said the plant would open with an initial annual production capacity of 5GWh and a potential future capacity of 12GWh.

It will receive cells from the company’s Swedish flagship gigafactory, Northvolt Ett, and the project received an EU innovation grant of €75 million (US$81 million).

The company has a targeted 2030 production capacity of 150GWh across its gigafactories in Sweden, which started ramping up production over 2022, and Germany. The latter may be delayed with CEO Peter Carlsson saying last year that high energy prices had affected the profitability of the project.

Most of Northvolt’s future offtake is going to the electric vehicle (EV) sector, in contrast to Norway-based peer Freyr which has mostly struck deals with companies in the ESS space. Northvolt did tie up with Fluence, the world’s biggest system integrator, in April 2021 for the two to work together on ESS solutions.

The firm has also opened a recycling facility which started operations last year, in Norway.

Europe has seen a substantial push to set up lithium-ion gigafactories across the continent, but generous tax credit incentives in the US have led companies to pivot across the Atlantic, leaving two thirds of projects at risk of cancellation, delay or downsizing, according to one recent report.

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Vanadium electrolyte: the ‘fuel’ for long-duration energy storage

VRFBs have an elegant and chemically simple design, with a single element of vanadium used in the vanadium electrolyte solution. The supply of this vanadium electrolyte is now playing the most important role in the batteries’ market growth.

Inside a VRFB. Image: US Vanadium.

Most VRFBs used what is known as ‘Gen 1’ vanadium electrolyte which is a combination of vanadium pentoxide (V2O5), sulphuric acid and water.

‘Gen 2’ was a vanadium bromide mix that was more costly and more chemically reactive. Issues with the solution included the formation of bromine gas and corrosion.

‘Gen 3’ is a solution using a mixed acid of hydrochloric acid, sulphuric acid and water. It was invented in the USA at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) and there are only a few licences available worldwide.

Gen 3 has a higher energy density and other benefits such as an even wider operating temperature range, however it is more corrosive and more complicated to ‘unscramble’. All of the major VRFB manufacturers around the world currently use Gen 1 vanadium electrolyte.

Supply chains

Since the advent of COVID-19, everyone has become a lot more aware of supply chains. For vanadium electrolyte the major producer is currently China, which also consumes a lot of that electrolyte for its own VRFB installations.

US Vanadium LLC (USV) in Arkansas, USA, supplies the highest purity vanadium electrolyte produced in the world and has a current capacity of 4 million litres per year, which equates to approximately 60MWh equivalent. USV has an agreement with Europe-headquartered VRFB manufacturer CellCube to supply up to 3 million litres of that electrolyte. In the UK, Oxkem is another electrolyte supplier. It has the capacity to manufacture in excess of 3 million litres per year.

Global supply of vanadium electrolyte is however currently very tight.

Primary vanadium producer Bushveld Minerals in South Africa is completing construction of its BELCO electrolyte plant which is expected to start operation in H1 2023, with an initial capacity of eight million litres per year. This production can be expanded to deliver 32 million litres per year.

Emerging vanadium producer Australian Vanadium Limited (AVL) in Australia is building a vanadium electrolyte manufacturing facility in Western Australia which will have an initial capacity of 33MWh per year. Production is due to commence later this year. AVL also intends to build further manufacturing facilities on the east coast of Australia to supply the growing local demand.

Several other companies have indicated their plans to manufacture vanadium electrolyte in Australia. The Australian Government is keen to support downstream processing in Australia, adding value to the country’s resources and leveraging strong international trading relationships to move up the value chain.

How that translates into serving VRFB end-market demand

In this nascent market, numbers used for vanadium electrolyte switch between the equivalent megawatt-hours, the number of litres of electrolyte and the contained amount of vanadium. One megawatt-hour (1MWh) of stored energy equals approximately 68,000 litres of vanadium electrolyte or 9.89 tonnes of vanadium pentoxide (V2O5), which can include a proportion of vanadium (III) oxide (V2O3) depending on whether a chemical or electrical method of production is used.

Specifications for elements contained in the electrolyte vary between VRFB manufacturers. The molarity, or concentration, of the solution also varies, but will usually be between 1.6 and 1.8 molar. Vanadium electrolyte manufacturers work with VRFB manufacturers to ensure that their electrolyte is suitable for supply, with some manufacturers insisting on particularly stringent requirements.

There are three primary vanadium mines in the world outside China that are currently in operation. One in Brazil which is operated by Largo Resources and two in South African which are operated by Bushveld Minerals and Glencore. However, 75% of the world’s vanadium is currently produced by China and Russia, not from primary production i.e., mining and extraction of vanadium from the ground, but as a by-product in the production of steel.

Why it matters

Vanadium electrolyte’s characteristics mean that VRFBs have the advantage over other energy storage mediums of being non-flammable and not having any degradation of performance over the battery’s lifespan.

VRFB manufacturers are generally offering 25-year warranties on their batteries. With good maintenance of pumps and other mechanical elements, they could last a lot longer. At the end of the battery’s 25+ year lifespan, the vanadium electrolyte can be reused in another battery. It might only need to be rebalanced to recover any minor capacity loss over that time. For example, VRFB manufacturer CellCube reported a ~1% capacity loss for a VRFB that had been operating for 10 years.

If there is no longer a requirement for the vanadium electrolyte to be used in a VRFB, the vanadium pentoxide can be reclaimed and used in a different application. US Vanadium can recycle spent electrolyte from VRFBs at a 97% vanadium recovery rate. This makes the VRFB a truly sustainable solution – the vanadium resource is only being borrowed from future generations, not consumed at its expense.

One of the main costs affecting vanadium electrolyte is the price of moving it. Essentially when you transport the electrolyte you are moving acid and water. To reduce the cost of the battery, manufacturing the electrolyte close to the installation makes a lot of sense.

Vanadium electrolyte makes up 40% of the battery’s cost for a 4 to 6-hour battery, rising in percentage as the duration is increased. VRFB power and energy is decoupled, meaning that the energy can be increased without having to pay for increased power. In comparison, an increase in energy storage for a lithium ion battery requires a related power increase which is then paid for, but not used.

Because vanadium electrolyte doesn’t degrade, it is an appropriate commodity for leasing. The customer then has an operating expense rather than a capital expense. This also provides comfort to the customer as at the end of the battery’s life the electrolyte belongs to someone else who will then be responsible for retrieving and repurposing it.

With a wide consensus on demand growth for VRFBs and the resulting demand for vanadium pentoxide and vanadium electrolyte supply, there is a bright future ahead for this versatile decarbonisation material.

Read Energy-Storage.news/ PV Tech Power’s 2021 feature interview with Maria Skyllas-Kazacos, University of New South Wales professor and co-inventor of the vanadium redox flow battery, here.

About the Author

Samantha McGahan has worked as marketing manager for Australian Vanadium Limited (ASX: AVL) and its vanadium redox flow battery focused subsidiary VSUN Energy for seven years. She has represented both companies to government and industry and has built a sound knowledge of the vanadium market and AVL’s pit to battery strategy. AVL is developing the high-grade Australian Vanadium Project in Western Australia to produce high-purity vanadium pentoxide for the steel and battery markets. The Company is also building its first vanadium electrolyte manufacturing facility in Perth, WA. VSUN Energy is focused on developing the vanadium redox flow battery market.

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Marubeni Corporation signs Vietnam battery storage MoU with VinGroup subsidiary VinES

Marubeni will begin its side of the cooperative work with a feasibility study of battery energy storage system (BESS) installations which could be installed at commercial and industrial (C&I) locations of VinGroup, VinES’ parent company – and Vietnam’s largest conglomerate.

This would aid VinGroup’s decarbonisation strategy, with batteries deployed onsite used to help manage the grid and perform demand response functions that reduce the facilities’ draw of electricity from the grid.

The BESS units would do this in combination with onsite solar PV arrays which Marubeni – already active in renewable energy markets around the world – would also deliver, under a no-money-down business model. As well as in Vietnam, Marubeni would look to roll this no upfront cost offering in territories including Mexico, Thailand, the Philippines and Japan.

Marubeni recently also signed a strategic partnership agreement with state-owned power utility Vietnam Electricity Group (EVN) for collaboration in decarbonisation activities.

Vietnam’s VinES meanwhile is aiming to become an early leader in the country’s energy storage market. In November last year, it broke ground on a new lithium iron phosphate (LFP) battery cell factory in the Vung Anh Economic Zone, which is being built together with Chinese battery manufacturer Gotion Hi-Tech.

The US$275 million factory will produce cells for VinES BESS products, as well as for electric vehicles (EVs) made by VinFast, another VinGroup subsidiary. VinES also recently signed an agreement to explore battery recycling opportunities with North American specialist Li-Cycle.

Master Plan targets decarbonisation, PV self-consumption, energy exports

The business collaboration between Marubeni and VinES appears to be aligned with some of the primary goals of Vietnam’s new Master Plan VIII for the development of the power sector. The plan outlines main and specific objectives to 2030, with a longer-term ‘vision’ for how the sector should look by 2050.

As reported by our colleagues over at PV Tech last week as official approval by the government was announced, that includes a goal to get 50% of office buildings and 50% of residential dwellings to utilise distributed rooftop PV for self-consumption of generated power, without export to the national grid.

This will likely involve the widespread use of batteries. The renewable energy sector in Vietnam has had a remarkable past few years, including 2020 when around 9GW of commercial PV was installed around the country, driven by a feed-in tariff (FiT).

However, this rapid growth of solar, unaccompanied by a commensurate investment in energy storage or other demand management technologies or transmission networks, led many to raise concerns that the grid would not be able to handle the integration of that variable renewable generation (VRG).

In a 2022 study commissioned by asset management group Dragon Capital, consultancy AqualisBraemar LOC Group (ABL Group) identified behind-the-meter batteries as a potential means to solve that challenge. There was also a recent US$35 million commitment by the Asian Development Bank to help accelerate development of the Vietnamese BESS market, in that case primarily to enable better access to electricity for rural and low-income communities.

At grid-scale, US engineering company Honeywell was recently selected for the first large-scale BESS project in Vietnam, which will be installed at a solar PV plant and funded with assistance from the US Consulate General.    

Other aspects of the Master Plan VIII include a target of becoming a bigger exporter of energy to other countries, aiming for an export capacity of between 5,000MW and 10,000MW by the end of this decade, investment into new power sources and transmission grids which could total more than half a trillion US Dollars and regular reviews of the power sector’s status, to be conducted by utility EVN.

Energy-Storage.news’ publisher Solar Media will host the 1st Energy Storage Summit Asia, 11-12 July 2023 in Singapore. The event will help give clarity on this nascent, yet quickly growing market, bringing together a community of credible independent generators, policymakers, banks, funds, off-takers and technology providers. For more information, go to the website.

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Suntuity Renewables to Combine with Beard Energy Transition Acquisition Corp. and Go Public

Dan Javan

Suntuity Renewables, a provider of renewable energy solutions, and Beard Energy Transition Acquisition Corp., a special purpose acquisition company, have entered into an agreement to become a combined, publicly traded company.

After the transaction closes, the combined company will be named Suntuity Inc. (New Suntuity), and its Class A common stock and warrants are expected to be listed on the New York Stock Exchange under the new ticker symbols STY and STY.WS, respectively.

Suntuity, one of the larger end-to-end residential solar companies in the U.S., counts more than 9,500 residential systems installations across 25 states. 

Since the company began its residential solar expansion in 2017, it has originated opportunities representing more than 200 MW and expanded its capabilities to include providing electrification solutions, installing power generation and storage systems and arranging third-party financing solutions for residential customers. 

Suntuity has a substantial share of the residential solar market, with a 26.7% install CAGR over the past three years and a robust $55 million backlog including over 1,100 projects.

“In taking this next step to become a publicly traded company, we intend to accelerate our growth, broaden our focus to include comprehensive home electrification solutions and services across the country and establish ourselves as a significant industry participant in the renewable energy transformation,” says Dan Javan, president and CEO of Suntuity. 

Gregory A. Beard, CEO of Beard, notes: “When searching for a potential partner in this transaction, we sought to identify a high-growth business in the renewable energy space with a clear path to scalability and a public-ready management team; we believe Suntuity satisfies each of these criteria and much more.”

Pursuant to the business combination agreement, Beard will acquire Suntuity for a pre-money equity value of $190 million. The combined company, New Suntuity, will issue 19.0 million new shares to current members of Suntuity.

Existing Suntuity members will exchange 100% of their equity interests in Suntuity for equity in New Suntuity. Cash proceeds will consist of cash from Beard’s trust account after redemptions by Beard’s public stockholders. Suntuity has also already raised $15 million in funded debt financing.

The business combination has been unanimously approved by the boards of directors of both companies and is expected to close in the fourth quarter of 2023.

Upon closing of the transaction, Suntuity’s senior management will continue to serve in their existing roles. Current Suntuity members are expected to own approximately 40% of the combined company at close of the transaction, assuming no redemptions by Beard’s public stockholders.

Vinson & Elkins LLP is serving as legal advisor to Beard. Roth Capital Partners is serving as capital markets advisor, and Loeb & Loeb LLP is serving as legal advisor to Suntuity.

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