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

Solvari is proud to announce the addition of Josh Plaisted to its Advisory Board. Mr. Plaisted brings 25-years of solar industry experience, including a successful exit for his startup, EchoFirst. As the co-founder and CTO, he was instrumental in raising $20M in equity funding to develop and bring to market a unique solar hybrid technology. Mr. Plaisted helped secure the first of its kind contract for solar as a standard feature in new home construction with one of the nation’s largest homebuilders. Through this partnership, over 2,500 system were installed across a dozen states proving the commercial viability of net zero home construction.

Mr. Plaisted also brings extensive executive level experience as a former VP of Product Development at Flex, the 4th largest electronics manufacturing services company in the world, and at SunEdison which was the world’s largest renewable energy developer during his tenure. At SunEdison, he managed over 45 engineers globally and led the development of power electronics, controls & monitoring, solar structures for residential applications, and system integration efforts for solar, storage, and home energy management.

“I am very excited with the addition of Mr. Plaisted to Solvari’s Advisory Board” said Samuel Truthseeker, CEO of Solvari. “We believe his product and industry knowledge coupled with his executive experience will be helpful in areas of operations, supply chain, systems integration, market fit, and upstream and downstream partnerships.”

When asked about Solvari's role in the evolving solar market, Mr. Plaisted remarked: “There is a big price difference between the US, EU and AU rooftop solar. I believe Solvari’s technology can help close this gap by minimizing customer acquisition costs through enabling roofers and other contractors that have existing customers and are already in the home to offer solar. In my experience, Roofers see the possibility of growing their business with solar, but are waiting for a high margin low complexity solution that is simple, fast, and easy to operationalize before they will commit. I believe Solvari is that solution.”

When asked why he decided to join Solvari’s Advisory Board, Mr. Plaisted replied: 

"Throughout my years working with Mr. Truthseeker, he consistently demonstrated his problem-solving ingenuity through his engineering expertise, deep market insight, and sharp business acumen. Recognizing early the true promise of direct-to-deck mounting and advanced polymeric racking, he applied relentless determination and grit to turn those visionary concepts into reality through Solvari."

Mr. Plaisted will advise on our supply chain, fundraising, future product development, and operations. In addition, he will provide guidance on strategic relationships and commercial opportunities for Solvari and its products.

Solvari | www.solvarisolar.com

PureSky Energy, a leader in sustainable energy solutions, announced today that Cotuit, a 4.4 MWdc community solar farm with 1.4 MWdc battery energy storage solution in Sandwich, MA, has reached commercial operation, marking PureSky's 11th site in the State of Massachusetts and 35th across the United States.

ASD Cotuit MA Solar LLC

• Location: Sandwich, MA
• Size: 4,357 kWdc
• Solar Panels: 11,172 high-efficiency units
• Estimated Annual Generation: 5,720,305 kWh
• BESS Rated Power Capacity: 1.4 MWdc
• Estimated Annual Co2 Reduction: 8,810,000 lbs (Equivalent to removing 951 cars off the road)
• Estimated 20-Year Customer Savings: $2,295,376

The Cotuit solar farm supports the region through supplying lower cost energy and revenue to the municipality. PureSky donated the land to the local municipality, Sandwich and is leasing it from them, providing annual income. As the single offtaker of the Cotuit community solar farm, a second neighboring municipality has also agreed to purchase community solar credits at a reduced rate, saving on the cost of electricity for the lifetime of the solar farm. This commitment demonstrates their leadership and dedication to local renewable energy development and innovations in energy storage, increasing the resilience of the grid and reducing the risk of power outages.

"Partnerships with municipalities are fundamental to advancing the renewable energy transition and increasing the resilience of the grid through battery energy storage solutions," says Nicholas Topping, Vice President of Community Solar at PureSky Energy. "The town demonstrated exceptional leadership in quickly recognizing the value of community solar as an innovative way to support local renewable energy development and bring the benefits of solar to their residents."

The Cotuit community solar farm exemplifies how renewable energy is well-positioned to build innovative partnerships that support the local community while advancing a clean and reliable energy future. As the strain and demand on electricity grids increase in Massachusetts and across the United States, building long-term relationships with local communities are pivotal to transitioning to more sustainable and resilient energy grid. The Cotuit community solar farm underscores PureSky's commitment to expanding access to the benefits of community solar and to deliver renewable energy solutions that serve local communities.  

PureSky is committed to delivering sustainable energy solutions to the State of Massachusetts. Corporations, municipalities, organizations, and institutions interested in learning more about becoming project anchors should contact [email protected].

PureSky Energy | www.pureskyenergy.com 

As community solar grows nationwide, customers sometimes face a confusing situation – getting a bill from their community solar provider and a separate bill from their utility. Customers have to do their own math to calculate the savings from their subscription.

In other cases, utilities and community solar companies have joined forces to provide a single bill, with all charges and credits consolidated. Single bills provide increased transparency, improved customer experience, and, ultimately, increased retention rates and decreased subscriber acquisition costs. 

In a new report for the National Community Solar Partnership (NCSP+) program, national lab researchers explore the issues around consolidated billing, including costs and benefits, software changes, consumer protection, and alternative approaches. 

Complications

While consolidated billing is simple in concept, it can face daunting administrative, technical, and financial hurdles. Billing structures can vary across states and utilities, with complex and disparate customer data. Software can be complicated and expensive, creating a need to either update existing systems or adopt new platforms. Billing can be managed completely differently between regulated and competitive retail markets.

Implementation timelines can sometimes require several years to deploy automated systems. And implementation costs can range from hundreds of thousands to millions of dollars, depending on the utility’s existing infrastructure and experience.

Implications and alternatives

Consumer protections are also of paramount importance for billing. Community solar subscriptions can complicate how partial payment or nonpayment is handled, and could lead to utility service disconnections. We briefly review lessons learned from on-bill repayment programs, such as Pay As You Save, to see how other third-party transactions are managed on utility bills. 

Lastly, the report explores alternatives to utility consolidated billing, such as third-party consolidated billing, automatic bill crediting, and “single accounting/dual billing” approaches, which aim to provide similar benefits without the full-scale adoption of utility consolidated billing. These alternatives could offer simpler and more immediate solutions for states and utilities facing implementation challenges.

Although consolidated billing offers significant benefits for community solar programs, particularly in customer understanding and satisfaction, its implementation can be complex and requires careful consideration of administrative, technical, and financial factors. This report helps states and utilities learn from the experiences of others to find the most suitable path forward.

The report, Community Solar Consolidated Billing: An Exploration of Implementation and Alternatives, was written as a response for technical assistance under the National Community Solar Partnership (NCSP+), an initiative of the U.S. Department of Energy’s Solar Energy Technologies Office. It was written by Simon Sandler and Jenna Harmon of the National Renewable Energy Laboratory and by Bentham Paulos of Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.

National Renewable Energy Laboratory | https://www.nrel.gov/

Tech Safety Lines, a global leader in life-saving safety training and equipment for industries including wind energy, construction, and telecommunications, has been honored as the first-ever recipient of the Mayor’s Spotlight Award. CEO Diane Waghorne accepted the prestigious award on behalf of the company during a ceremony at City Hall, where Mayor Steve Babick delivered a keynote address highlighting Tech Safety Lines’ industry leadership and community contributions.

The Mayor’s Spotlight Award, part of Carrollton’s Business Retention & Industry Development Program, was established to recognize exemplary local businesses that drive innovation, growth, and excellence while enhancing the community’s prosperity. This award celebrates companies that embody Carrollton’s vision of a thriving business ecosystem and a strong, connected community.

Mayor Babick lauded Tech Safety Lines for its global impact on safety training and equipment while remaining deeply engaged with local initiatives. Since establishing its Carrollton headquarters in 2012, Tech Safety Lines has set international standards for fall protection and rescue training. The company also demonstrates its commitment to public safety by offering state-of-the-art training facilities free of charge to local first responders for skill development and internal exercises.

Diane Waghorne, the driving force behind Tech Safety Lines’ innovation and success for more than two decades, delivered a heartfelt speech. “Receiving the inaugural Mayor’s Spotlight Award is a tremendous honor,” Waghorne remarked. “Carrollton has been an integral part of our journey, providing a supportive and dynamic environment that aligns with our mission to protect lives. This recognition reflects the hard work of our incredible team, the trust of our clients, and the strength of our partnerships. We look forward to deepening our roots in this community and continuing to lead with safety and innovation.”

The ceremony also featured a video presentation showcasing Tech Safety Lines’ achievements and ongoing community engagement.

Tech Safety Lines | www.techsafetylines.com

The National Association of Manufacturers (NAM) announced that National Electrical Manufacturers Association (NEMA) President and CEO Debra Phillips has been appointed to its Board of the Council of Manufacturing Associations (CMA). NEMA represents leading manufacturers of electrical technologies essential to a resilient grid, modern mobility systems, efficient industrial operations and smart building applications. Electrical manufacturers are instrumental to America’s critical infrastructure, national security and economic growth.

As part of the CMA Board, Phillips will guide work to advance policies that enhance U.S. manufacturing priorities and to collaborate across the American manufacturing sector to achieve shared objectives.  

“There has never been a more exciting moment for U.S. manufacturing and I look forward to advancing the opportunities for our critical sector as part of NAM’s CMA Board,” said Debra Phillips, President and CEO, NEMA. “The electroindustry is one of the largest manufacturing sectors in the U.S. economy and this new role will provide an opportunity to add our voice and leadership to the growing domestic manufacturing base. I look forward to working together with fellow industry leaders to advance our shared goals.”

NEMA | www.nema.org

On Friday, January 10, 2025, the US Department of the Treasury officially published final guidance regarding the 45V Clean Hydrogen Production Tax Credit. 

Clean Energy Group applauds the Treasury for not bowing to industry pressure to relax the core principles of its initial draft guidance, ensuring that 45V will primarily incentivize green hydrogen, which (as long as stringent guardrails are in place) is the only form of hydrogen production that will not lead to a dangerous increase in greenhouse gas emissions. However, some concessions in the final guidance, in combination with other federal funding and tax credits for fossil fuel powered hydrogen, leaves experts concerned.

“Treasury’s 45V final guidance is a step in the right direction, but it does not go far enough,” says Abbe Ramanan, Clean Energy Group Project Director. “Without stricter guardrails in place, increased hydrogen production will perpetuate fossil fuel dependence and exacerbate climate change and local pollution.” 

The final rules maintain the “three pillars” approach of the draft guidance, requiring that hydrogen production facilities must meet the following standards to be eligible for the 45V tax credit: 

• Hydrogen facilities must be paired with new clean energy generation (“incrementality”)
• Hydrogen production must be matched with clean energy generation (“temporal matching”)
• Clean energy resources must be located within the same transmission region as the hydrogen production facility (“deliverability”)

While the final guidance maintains these core principles, it does contain several concessions to industry lobbying that have the potential to jeopardize emissions reductions. These include loosened restrictions on what energy generation is eligible to meet the incrementality requirement, opening three pathways for using existing energy generation:  

• Clean energy procured from states that have set goals requiring that 100% of retail energy sales be carbon-free by 2050 (currently, only California and Washington) 
• Energy produced from formerly retired nuclear facilities (“pink hydrogen”) 
• Energy from fossil fuel power plants retrofitted with carbon capture and storage (CCS) (“blue hydrogen”) 

In another capitulation to the fossil fuel industry, fossil fuel alternatives like biomethane, which has a similar emissions intensity to natural gas, can be used as a feedstock for qualifying hydrogen production, although some stipulations have been put in place to limit undercounting the emissions intensity of those fuels. 

The final guidance for 45V comes as the US Department of Energy’s Regional Hydrogen Hubs Initiative has continued to move forward despite significant pushback from climate scientists, environmental justice advocates, and members of communities likely to be impacted by the Hubs. The seven Hubs are supported by $7 billion in federal funding, and many of them plan to produce hydrogen at least partially with fossil fuels. While the final guidance for 45V means that some of the Hubs may not be eligible for the highest tier of the tax credit, other federal tax credits are available to subsidize fossil fuel powered hydrogen, including the 45Q tax credit for carbon capture, for which blue hydrogen projects could qualify. 

Clean Energy Group |. www.cleanegroup.org 

Digi International, (NASDAQ: DGII), a leading global provider of Internet of Things (IoT) connectivity solutions, announced the launch of Digi X-ON, a breakthrough edge-to-cloud IoT solution that provides the components needed for IoT systems from one trusted and reliable supplier.

Designed to remove the barriers of integrating, deploying and scaling industrial IoT systems, Digi X-ON integrates hardware, software, and cloud connectivity into a single, secure, and reliable platform that delivers measurable business value — supporting many different applications and use cases such as connected cities, smart utilities, industrial IoT and smart agriculture.

“With customers deploying Digi X-ON in a range of use cases, we are seeing excellent results, such as greater visibility into the health of large livestock herds, automation in buildings, and digital transformation in supply chain use cases, as well as improved return on investment,” said Mike Rohrmoser, VP of Product Management, OEM Solutions at Digi International.

For example, a lead customer, Fever Tags, empowers ranchers, feedlots and dairies to take a proactive and innovative approach to animal health, enabling early detection of illness, and allowing for timely intervention to reduce extensive antibiotic treatments, prevent death loss and disease spread. This not only improves animal welfare but also contributes to the animal’s continued weight gain and a more sustainable and responsible approach to livestock management.

"With a FeverTags solution, we can identify and treat sick cattle up to 72 hours before they show signs of illness that you can detect visibly,” says John Greer, CEO of FeverTags. “Anytime you can keep an animal healthy, and eating and drinking, you deliver an immediate financial impact and an ROI to the cattle owners."

Greer added, “FeverTags provides immediate cost savings by early sickness identification and treating only sick animals instead of giving antibiotics to the entire herd.” This reduces costs for veterinarians, bankers and insurers who can monitor individual animals or entire herds from their phone or computer.

In addition, Greer said, “We also provide other features, such as traceability and predictive values we can use to identify if cattle originating from a particular location are all prone to sickness, which helps cattle owners to isolate and treat health problems quickly. The herd’s data captured in our software presents a predictive value to cattle and dairy organizations, providing early actionable treatment that results in an immediate ROI.”

The Digi X-ON platform communicates several miles omnidirectionally, so the tags can cover a 250,000-head feed yard, or a 40,000-acre ranch or a dairy, as structures and buildings do not impede the communication signal.

“Digi’s WDS custom engineering services designed and manufactured the custom tag for monitoring animal health around the Digi XBee LR for LoRaWAN,” said Rohrmoser. “The XBee module allows the sensor to be pre-activated, so tagging a cow and activating the tag on a rugged tablet takes just seconds as a cow enters the feedlot, a key benefit of Digi X-ON’s scan-and-go provisioning. 

Deploying IoT networks requires a diverse set of components and systems, from sensors and gateways to connectivity, software, and cloud platforms. As industrial IoT adoption accelerates, organizations deploying LoRaWAN networks struggle with fragmented technology ecosystems, which leads to higher costs, integration complexity, and disjointed support that slows down their digital transformation.​​​​​​​​​

"Digi X-ON changes industrial IoT from a complex multi-vendor puzzle into a single, seamless solution that drives real business results,” said Rohrmoser. “Customers can now focus on achieving their business goals instead of wrestling with the complexities of technology integration, scaling from concept to production with remarkable simplicity, speed, and scalability."​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​

With industrial IoT set to reach $2.5 billion by 2032, Digi X-ON empowers businesses to lead their industries by eliminating complexity and accelerating time to value with a future-ready, scalable solution.

Digi X-ON development kits, produced by SparkFun, are available worldwide. These kits provide businesses with everything they need to start building their IoT solutions today. 

Digi International | https://www.digi.com