The Critical Role of Silicon Metal in America's EV Market

Orange EV, the leading manufacturer of 100% electric terminal trucks, announced the addition of Olivier Roubi as Vice President of Rental and Leasing and Dr. Zouhair Lazreq as Vice President of Engineering. These appointments underscore Orange EV's commitment to strengthening its leadership team as it continues to drive innovation and growth in the zero-emission electric vehicle market. 

Olivier Roubi, Vice President of Rental and Leasing 

Roubi brings over 25 years of experience in automotive and commercial vehicle fleet management across the United States and Europe. Most recently, he served as Vice President of Sales at B-ON, a manufacturer of fully electric delivery trucks, where he successfully led teams supporting logistics operators transitioning to electric fleets. 

In his new role, Roubi will focus on expanding Orange EV’s short-term rental and long-term lease programs. These initiatives will include customized rental solutions that allow customers to experience pure-electric terminal trucks before committing to long-term ownership, while simplifying the process and enhancing the customer experience. By advancing these offerings, Roubi aims to provide flexible solutions that better serve Orange EV’s growing customer base and strengthen its market leadership. 

“I’m very excited to join Orange EV and help customers accelerate their CO2 footprint reduction and reduce operational cost by providing them with flexible and competitive short-term rental and long-term lease offers for their yard truck operations,” said Roubi. 

Dr. Zouhair Lazreq, Vice President of Engineering 

Dr. Lazreq joins Orange EV with a distinguished career spanning aerospace, consulting, and automotive industries. He previously served as Vice President, Global Engineering for Bridgestone Americas, leading the engineering function for Firestone Airide. His career also includes leadership roles at Ford Motor Company and Dana, overseeing engineering and operations for more than 120 facilities, in 26 countries. 

Dr. Lazreq holds a Ph.D. in Acoustics and Vibrations from the University of Technology of Compiègne, France, and a master's in engineering management from Wayne State University. He combines deep technical expertise with a passion for empowering teams and fostering innovation. 

“Joining Orange EV felt natural because of its technical leadership and commitment to sustainability,” said Dr. Lazreq. “I’m excited to build on the team’s strengths, enhance internal processes, and support a thriving team that drives our mission forward.” 

With the added expertise of Olivier Roubi and Dr. Zouhair Lazreq, Orange EV will continue to deliver the industry’s best-engineered terminal trucks, offering a turnkey solution that simplifies deployment and maximizes customer success. 

Orange EV | https://orangeev.com/

Height safety leader, Guardian, proudly announces the promotion of Kevin Gee to Chief Marketing Officer and USA Chief Revenue Officer. Since joining Guardian in March 2024 as Chief Marketing Officer, Kevin has been instrumental in advancing product innovation, enhancing industry engagement, and solidifying Guardian’s 360-degree height safety brand strategy. In his expanded role, Kevin will now also oversee USA sales, drive customer and end-user-centric partnerships, and spearhead revenue growth initiatives.

“I am extremely excited and honored to continue my career growth with Guardian and look forward to achieving new heights in 2025 and beyond.” said Kevin. “We have an exciting year ahead filled with a host of new products, commercial initiatives, and a renewed focus on working with our commercial and end-user partners to keep delivering disruptive innovation.”

With over 12 years of leadership in strategic product development and marketing within the tool and construction industries, Kevin brings a proven track record of driving success. Prior to Guardian, he played a pivotal role at Milwaukee Tool, leading global teams in developing and commercializing cutting-edge cordless tools and equipment, an experience that has equipped him with the expertise and vision to drive growth and innovation at Guardian.

We are excited for the future under Kevin’s leadership as we build on our commitment to delivering innovative, industry-leading height safety solutions that meet the evolving needs of our customers and partners.

Guardian | guardianfall.com

EDP Renewables North America LLC (EDPR NA), a leading renewable energy developer and a top-five renewable energy owner and operator in the United States, unveiled Sandrini I & II Solar Energy Park (Sandrini I & II) today in Kern County.

The two-phase solar energy park includes the 200 megawatt (MW) Sandrini I, which has a 15-year power purchase agreement (PPA) with Shell Energy North America (SENA), and 100 MW Sandrini II, which has a 15-year PPA with Redwood Coast Energy Authority (RCEA). Both phases of the project were commissioned in Q4, 2024.

Generating enough energy to power the equivalent of more than 76,000 California homes each year, Sandrini I has already disbursed more than $510,000 in tax payments to local governments since 2023. This has strengthened the local community by enhancing schools, roads, and other essential services. Additionally, approximately $15 million will be paid to local landowners, who lease a portion of their land to house the solar energy park’s infrastructure. Sandrini I & II employed more than 200 workers during construction and will create several permanent operations positions.

Power from Sandrini II will provide over a third of the total annual electric need for customers of RCEA’s community choice energy program. RCEA supplies more than 90% of the electricity for Humboldt County on California’s rural north coast. Completion of Sandrini II marks a large step toward RCEA meeting its goal of supplying 100% renewable energy to its customers by 2030.

RCEA is one of 25 community choice aggregators (CCAs) now serving communities in California. Sandrini II adds to 8,000 MW of new clean energy resources brought online to date by California’s CCAs. An additional 10,000 MW of new clean resources are in contract with these CCAs and are currently under development or construction. The CCAs’ clean energy projects collectively support over 36,000 construction jobs across California and the West.

The construction and ongoing operations of Sandrini I & II will continue to aid in local spending and support of small businesses - namely restaurants, hotels, and retailers - located near the project. Both phases of the solar energy park also yield environmental benefits, including saving more than 381 million gallons of water each year compared to the amount of water that conventional generation sources would need to produce the same amount of capacity. These water savings, in turn, will help aid Kern County’s water conservation goals.

EDPR NA is a clean energy leader in California, currently operating six renewable energy projects in the State, totalling 488 MW of capacity. Its projects include three phases of the Rising Tree Wind Farm, two phases of the Lone Valley Solar Park, and the Windhub A Solar Park. EDPR NA’s California portfolio also boasts several other solar parks and battery storage facilities, including the recently completed 200 MW solar and 40 MW storage Scarlet Solar Energy Park.

EDPR NA | www.edpr.com/north-america

Expansion at the beginning of the year: NeXtWind, the leading provider of optimized energy hubs using existing onshore wind farms in Germany, has acquired twelve wind farms located in western, northern and eastern Germany. Their current generating capacity of 140 MW will be expanded by NeXtWind to well over 300 MW through repowering and further optimizations. The Berlin-based company thus increases its total repowering capacity of renewable energy to 1,400 MW, which is equivalent to substituting approx. 1.5 nuclear power plant reactors. Therefore, NeXtWind will be able to supply around 1 million households in Germany with green electricity every year.

NeXtWind is acquiring the wind farms in a share deal from Nadara, one of the largest Independent Power Producers (IPP) of onshore wind farms in Europe. The wind farms were built between 2007 and 2011 and therefore have a high repowering potential using technology advancements of the past 15 years.

“This acquisition is a huge milestone for NeXtWind, and also a further step for the energy transition in Germany,” said Lars Meyer, Co-CEO and Co-Founder of NeXtWind. “We are building the next generation of flexible energy infrastructure to drive the transition to a decarbonized, decentralized, and digitalized energy system that meets the growing demand for clean power from energy-intensive applications such as AI, as well as the electrification of mobility and the heating sector.”

2024 has been a breakthrough year for NeXtWind – in terms of underlying assets, repowering potential and team growth. The company has expanded its repowering capacity to 1.4 GW. The portfolio currently consists of 230 (previously 160) wind turbines in 37 wind farms. The optimized wind farms will generate several times more energy. NeXtWind is aiming for a generation potential of 3,000 MW by 2028.

NeXtWind focuses on optimizing existing wind energy sites with outdated turbines, replacing the turbines with more efficient ones, and expanding the sites through constructive and trustful cooperation with the local communities to install additional turbines on the site. By co-locating complementary and flexible technologies, the energy output can be further increased and managed. Previously focused on northern and eastern Germany, the footprint is now being strengthened in western Germany.

NeXtWind was advised on this transaction by Augusta & Co (Buy-Side advisory), Watson Farley & Williams and AKD (Legal), PricewaterhouseCoopers (Finance & Tax), TÜV SÜD (Technical & Yield), Marsh (W&I), Enervis (Market) and AON (Insurance).

NeXtWind | www.nextwind.com

At CES 2025, Panasonic unveiled an innovative new energy efficient approach to heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) that uses significantly less energy than conventional technologies. Building upon its rich history and founder’s guiding vision of making today better than yesterday, tomorrow better than today, the OASYS solution brings together two areas of focus: sustainable technology and the wellbeing of society.  

Introducing OASYS

OASYS is a holistic home comfort solution created for modern, high-performance homes. As home building design has advanced with new materials and construction techniques, the standard approaches to conditioning and treating indoor air left room for innovation. Today, OASYS combines a suite of Panasonic technologies into a complete, proprietary solution to take a leap forward for one of the home’s most important systems.

Offering cleaner, fresher air; balanced humidity; and consistent temperature control across the house, this new approach to HVAC supports the comfort and wellbeing of families in their home environment with greater energy efficiency and cost saving advantages compared to traditional systems. 

“OASYS is more than an HVAC system. It’s a holistic air quality management solution to support your family’s comfort and peace-of-mind by delivering cleaner air and consistent temperatures throughout the whole house,” said Naoki Kamo, President of Panasonic Eco Systems of North America. “Our homes are where our families flourish, and OASYS builds on Panasonic’s rich, 100-year history of inventing technologies to support the wellbeing and sustainability of people and society.”

Superior performance and comfort

According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Americans spend on average about 90% of their time indoors¹ where the concentration of some pollutants is often two to five times higher than typical outdoor air.² Improving ventilation with outdoor air is one of the fundamental strategies to lowering concentrations of indoor air pollutants – but most home heating and cooling systems do not mechanically bring fresh air into the house.³

OASYS starts with ventilation: the system takes in fresh outdoor air, filters it, and tempers it to the homeowner’s temperature setting. It then circulates air constantly throughout the entire house for approximately four air changes per hour⁴ while continuously monitoring the air for comfort. The result is a more comfortable, cleaner indoor environment for the family, designed with their wellness in mind. It goes beyond what homeowners can expect from conventional systems today with:

• Consistent Temperature Control: maintains consistent temperature and airflow from room-to-room in the home, eliminating hot spots and cold corners.
• Balanced Air Circulation and Filtration: provides constant, ongoing ventilation and filtration of home air to help protect from allergens and pollutants while deodorizing the air to reduce odors.
• Humidity Control: delivers ongoing humidity control throughout the whole house with constant air movement and ventilation to help prevent excess moisture and mold.
• Easy maintenance: requires minimal regular maintenance of a simple-to-clean air filter with no annual system maintenance necessary, and each component of the solution can be repaired or replaced individually. 
• Quiet Operation: runs with whisper-quiet operation, with minimal fan noise to promote more comfort for families.

These features work together to improve the quality of the air inside the home, supporting the longevity of the home by helping protect against mold and excess humidity that can cause decay. 

Improved efficiency and economics  

According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, the HVAC system demands more energy on average than any other system in a home through its energy consumption in space heating and air conditioning.⁵ OASYS can reduce energy consumption for heating and air conditioning by up to 53%⁶ compared to traditional HVAC systems, making it an ideal solution for those looking to reduce their home’s energy usage and lower monthly energy bills. 

The improved efficiency offered by OASYS makes it easier and more affordable to leverage renewable energy to power the home, such as residential solar and battery storage. Decreasing the energy needs of a home’s most demanding system means that smaller and more cost-efficient solar systems can be used to power the home, expanding solar power as an option for more houses. And when powered by solar panels and battery storage, homes are better able to withstand power outages, making them more resilient to weather disturbances caused by climate impacts.

OASYS delivers these performance and efficiency gains with a similar installation cost⁷ to existing technologies in high-performance homes. Achieving this dramatic reduction in HVAC power demand is a critical step towards achieving a more affordable and accessible zero-energy home.

Panasonic Corporation of North America | https://na.panasonic.com/us/

^[1] U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. 1989. Report to Congress on indoor air quality: Volume 2. EPA/400/1-89/001C. Washington, DC.

^[2] U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. 1987. The total exposure assessment methodology (TEAM) study: Summary and analysis. EPA/600/6-87/002a. Washington, DC.

^[3] U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. “The Inside Story: A Guide to Indoor Air Quality”

^[4] Based on measured data from Panasonic in a concept home environment: total volume of the air-conditioned space was 33,600 cubic feet (ft³), and total airflow was 129,600 ft³ per hour.

^[5] U.S. Energy Information Administration, Residential Energy Consumption Survey 2020. Summary can be found on “Uses of Energy explained” page.

^[6] Based on a July 2024 analysis commissioned by Panasonic comparing the OASYS solution against conventional system designs, using a two-story, 4-bedroom, 3.5-bathroom house with light concrete tile roofing and a ventilated crawlspace underneath the first floor as the model home. Energy savings compare a Panasonic high efficiency design including an OASYS high efficiency custom HVAC system and high-performance envelope, to a code minimum house design utilizing a standard gas furnace. Energy demand was converted and standardized to kilowatt hours (kWh), with the model estimating 5,932 kWh annual energy consumption for the OASYS system compared to an estimated 12,744 kWh annual energy consumption for the conventional system, a reduction in annual energy consumption of 53%. The U.S. Department of Energy’s IES Virtual Environment software was used to produce an HVAC load sizing report, while the building’s energy usage was assessed with the National Renewable Energy Lab’s BEopt tool.

^[7] Calculation based on installing the OASYS system at an initial cost of $25,000 in the abovementioned two-story, 4-bedroom, 3.5-bathroom high-performance house compared to a conventional HVAC system in high-performance homes at an initial cost of approximately $24,000 

Key Capture Energy, LLC (“KCE”), a leading developer, owner, and operator of battery energy storage systems (BESS) in the United States, announced the commercial operations of two 100MW projects in Texas and the transfer of the investment tax credits (ITCs) for both projects to a third party. This marks KCE’s second ITC transfer transaction under the Inflation Reduction Act and brings its battery energy storage operating fleet to over 620MW across the U.S.

“Key Capture Energy continues to lead the industry, and this second ITC transfer is an important milestone for the company,” said Brian Hayes, Key Capture Energy’s Chief Executive Officer. “By collaborating with our utility partners and leveraging financial tools like the ITC, we’re looking forward to bringing more battery energy storage online to support a reliable and resilient electric grid in markets nationwide.”

The two new standalone projects operate within the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) market, helping to balance high levels of intermittent energy in Texas and mitigate grid fluctuations, particularly during peak demand periods. Located in Denton and Grimes counties, both projects qualified for the 10 percent Energy Community Tax Credit bonus available under the Inflation Reduction Act.

The ITC transfers will enable KCE to invest in its development portfolio across the country. KCE is one of the most experienced battery energy storage operators in the ITC transfer market, having completed its first transaction in December 2023.

CRC-IB served as the financial advisor to KCE and KCE was represented by Clifford Chance US LLP. TReK served as the financial advisor to the buyer and the buyer was represented by Akin LLP.

Key Capture Energy | keycaptureenergy.com