Last week, Michael Peevey, president of the California Public Utilities Commission, announced that he was stepping down from his position at the end of the year. His resignation comes amidst an investigation into an overly cozy, cash-rich and influence-filled relationship between regulators and utility executives at Pacific Gas and Electric. The website SFGate quoted Tom Long, a lawyer with The Utility Reform Network, as saying, “This is nothing less than quid pro quo deal-making with ratepayer dollars." He continued, “I honestly have never seen such smoking-gun evidence of corruption at the highest levels of the commission.” A CPUC spokesman "denied that...Peevey had promised anything to PG&E in exchange for regulatory favors," according to the website.
Jason Chow, VP of Hanergy Holding Group, led the acquisitions of Solibro, MiaSolé, Global Solar Energy, Engensa and Alta Devices, according to his LinkedIn profile. He is now Vice Chairman of Alta Devices, a photovoltaic solar firm whose technology is based on gallium arsenide.
Ryan Wartena, founder and original CEO of Geli, has replaced Michael Breen as CEO of the energy storage software startup. Breen, previously with Xtreme Power, was hired as CEO in October of last year when Geli completed a $500,000 funding round, the last reported funding received by the firm.
SolarReserve, a concentrated solar power technology and project developer, named Pauline Doohan as VP and general counsel. Doohan joined SolarReserve from law firm Baker & McKenzie, where she served as a partner involved in renewables and infrastructure deals.
AWS Truepower, a renewable energy project consulting firm, promoted CTO Michael Brower to president.
Ultrasolar Technology, a startup looking to improve energy harvest in solar modules by using the pyroelectric effect, named Lali Nathan as CFO. Nathan previously served as associate director at Barclays Capital (London/Singapore/Mumbai), VP of finance at Calpine, CFO/VP of finance at U.S. Biodiesel, Oski Energy and Simbol, and more recently, Meridian Energy.
Luis D’Acosta was promoted from COO to CEO at Schweitzer Engineering Laboratories (SEL). D’Acosta was previously the director of SEL’s Mexican subsidiary and more recently served as the COO and corporate VP of sales. Edmund Schweitzer will continue as the firm’s president and chairman of the board.
Ben Macias, former VP of global sales at Shoals Technologies Group, has joined SolarBOS as VP of business development. SolarBOS focuses on combiner boxes and other hardware for solar installations.
Eric Drummond was named co-managing director at the Energy Fellows Institute, a program to educate experienced executives and entrepreneurs in the advanced energy sector. Drummond was most recently a partner at law firm Fairfield and Woods.
Advanced Energy Industries promoted Yuval Wasserman to president and CEO. Wasserman has been with solar inverter and power conversion manufacturer Advanced Energy since 2007, having joined as SVP of sales, marketing & service. Prior to AE, Wasserman was CEO of Tevet Process Control Technologies, a semiconductor metrology firm.
Glen Davis was promoted to CEO of RES Americas, a subsidiary of RES Group. Glen was the CEO of developer Agile Energy before it was acquired by RES Group. RES Group recently sold an early-stage 200-megawatt project in Nevada to NV Energy.