Politico reports that the Solar Energy Industries Association has selected Abigail Ross Hopper as its new CEO. Hopper was previously head of the Interior Department’s Bureau of Ocean Energy Management. Before that, she was director of the Maryland Energy Administration and an adviser to former Gov. Martin O’Malley. Previous SEIA CEO Rhone Resch guided the U.S. solar industry lobbying group for more than a decade and led national advocacy efforts, including the passage of the eight-year Investment Tax Credit (ITC) in 2008, passage of the stimulus package in 2009, and the most recent renewal of the ITC.
Bloom Energy, a provider of distributed power generation from fuel cells, announced that Mary K. Bush will join its board of directors. Bush previously served as managing director of the U.S. Federal Housing Finance Board and VP of international finance at the Federal National Mortgage Associate (Fannie Mae). From 1984 to 1988, she was U.S. alternate executive director of the International Monetary Fund. Bush serves on a number of boards including Discover Financial Services, Marriott International and T. Rowe Price Group. Bush joins a Bloom board that includes General Colin Powell, John Doerr, chairman of KPCB, and T.J. Rodgers, founder and CEO of Cypress Semiconductor.
According to an October report in The Wall Street Journal, Bloom has submitted a confidential registration for its IPO with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm has raised more than $1.2 billion since 2001 and has a roster of premier paying customers, as well as a knack for absorbing state subsidies intended for clean, renewable power. Bloom's investors include the New Zealand Superannuation Fund, KPCB, NEA, Goldman Sachs, DAG, GSV Capital, Apex Venture Partners, Mobius Venture Capital, Madrone Capital and SunBridge Partners. The 15-year-old startup claims to have installed more than 200 megawatts of its Bloom boxes in the U.S.
For more on Bloom's history, read our reporting on the company's spectacularly negotiated deal with Delaware utility Delmarva Power, the debatable "greenness" of its fuel cell, and its participation in California's Self-Generation Incentive Program.
Vivint Solar, a residential solar provider, announced that David Bywater has been named CEO after acting as interim CEO since May. Bywater was formerly COO at Vivint Smart Home, and before that, an executive VP at Xerox. Vivint has shown some revenue growth and positive momentum in the two quarters since its near-acquisition by now-bankrupt SunEdison. Blackstone Group is the majority shareholder in Vivint Solar and the owner of Vivint Smart Home.
EnerNOC promoted Jackie Bliss to GM of global energy procurement. Sarah McAuley was promoted to VP of marketing at the firm.
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Enertech Search Partners, an executive search firm with a dedicated cleantech practice, is the sponsor of the GTM jobs column.
Among its many active searches, Enertech is looking for a Head of Data Analytics -- Distributed Energy
The client is one of the world’s leading integrated energy companies looking to expand the team for an internal startup. The parent company expects to invest about $1 billion into this early-stage business focused on distributed energy for large energy users. By combining traditional and renewable power, energy efficiency, demand response, generation, advisory services and big data and other digital assets, they help their customers capitalize on the new and more flexible energy landscape and move from consumers to prosumers and even grid service providers.
The client is seeking a Head of Data Analytics who will be responsible for setting the global strategy/vision and establishing data analytics capabilities. This individual will be a key member of the Technology & Product Development team and will have a significant role in building and maintaining world-class data analytics and business intelligence.
This is a rapidly growing team with tremendous leadership and fantastic technology solutions, backed by a global energy company.
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Pierre D'Amours is now president at Sunegen Power, a vertically integrated EPC formed from the merger of Sunegen Power and China's CSUNPower. D'Amours was most recently executive VP at Solar Forensics.
Rick Thompson, president of Greentech Media, is leaving the research, news and events company he co-founded with CEO Scott Clavenna in 2007. Thompson was instrumental in the look and style of GTM's online presence and helped make the crucial decisions every startup must make in order to survive and succeed.
From the previous jobs column:
Mateo Jaramillo, VP of products and programs at Tesla Energy, is leaving the company, as confirmed by GTM. With Tesla since 2009, Jaramillo spoke at GTM's Energy Storage Summit earlier this month. Here are a few excerpts from the conversation.
"The energy market dynamics will certainly shift. The network operators, however, are not going away anytime soon. The natural monopoly function, and that regulated natural monopoly function is also not going away."
"That's sort of the beauty of the 50 state laboratories that we have, different models pursuing different paths. Texas being an energy-only market, Germany looks a lot like Texas. It's probably the only way in which Germany looks a lot like Texas, [with] highly competitive retail markets, highly competitive generation markets, and then sort of established network operators. The state of Texas has done some good things to really incentivize renewables, and the output, and specifically transmission build-out. The result is that, of course, they have a lot of renewables, and now you're seeing merchant solar come for the first time in a major way in any U.S. market. I think that a lot of states are looking at Texas."
"The important thing to keep in mind is that energy storage will participate no matter what the structure of the market is. No matter what path on regulation is taken, you can come up with a solution that works for incorporating energy storage because it provides value to the market."
Prior to Tesla, Jaramillo was COO at Gaia Power Technologies. (The full transcript of the conversation with Jaramillo and Sonnen CMO Philipp Schröder, as well as the video archives of the Energy Storage Summit, are available to Squared members.)
John Woolard, VP at Google, has left the firm. Woolard, the former CEO of BrightSource Energy, joined Google as VP of energy in 2014. While at BrightSource, Woolard led the development, fundraising and construction of the $2.2 billion, 392-megawatt Ivanpah solar thermal power plant, a first-of-its-scale power tower project. Google was an investor. In April 2013, BrightSource pulled its IPO due to unfavorable market conditions.