Last week, GTM covered the resignation of NRG Energy CEO David Crane from a post he’s held since 2003. GTM Senior Editor Stephen Lacey and VP Shayle Kann discussed the surprising move with Steve Propper, GTM’s director of grid research, on a recent episode of The Interchange podcast. Senior Writer Julia Pyper took an even deeper look in this article (reliable sources report that Crane himself had some good things to say about Pyper's coverage). COO Mauricio Gutierrez is replacing Crane as CEO.
Renewable Energy Trust Capital, an independent renewable energy capital platform, announced that current president and COO Karen Morgan has succeeded John Bohn as CEO. Bohn, a former CPUC commissioner, will remain as executive chairman.
Sunrun announced that its president, Tom Holland, will retire later this year. Holland joined Sunrun in 2013 as COO and was appointed to the role of president last year. Sunrun currently has no plans to replace the position.
Advanced Microgrid Solutions (AMS) named Alain Steven as CTO. Prior to joining AMS, Steven served as CTO and co-founder of Viridity Energy. He was also CTO and VP of regional transmission organization PJM Interconnection. AMS uses behind-the-meter energy storage systems for electric utility grid support.
SunLink added James Ray as VP of software engineering. Previously, Ray served as founder and CEO of financial services consulting company IdeasX. SunLink develops optimized, product-plus-service solutions for rooftop and ground-mount solar projects.
Pacific Business News reports that NextEra Energy is "expected to have up to five of the company's executives join the Hawaiian Electric Co. executive team if the $4.3 billion sale of the Honolulu-based utility to the Florida energy giant goes through." The Hawaii PUC could make a decision on the sale by June 2016.
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8minutenergy Renewables, an independent solar developer, appointed Arthur Haubenstock as general counsel and VP for government and regulatory affairs. Haubenstock previously served as VP of regulatory affairs for BrightSource Energy.
Alex Luce is now the program manager at energy storage organization CalCharge, part of the California Clean Energy Fund. Previously, Luce was an EIR at SkyDeck Berkeley, an accelerator.
Joshua Rogol, formerly of Urban Green Energy and Photon Consulting, is now director of sales at flow battery vendor ViZn Energy Systems.
Fuel cell veteran Ballard Power added Marty Neese to its board of directors. Neese has served as COO of SunPower since 2008. Prior to joining SunPower, Neese was EVP of worldwide operations at Flextronics and EVP of operations at Solectron.
Aaron Bent joined the board of directors at Sequentric Energy Systems. Sequentric uses behind-the-meter water heaters as an aggregated grid resource.
From last week's column:
Sean Zhang has been promoted to deputy GM of Atieva China. Atieva started out in 2007 as a battery-pack developer with a founder from Tesla and VC funding from Venrock, but the company has since pivoted to operating as a stealth EV effort in Silicon Valley and China. Atieva is advertising openings for many dozens of hardware and software engineers.
Abengoa's CEO, Santiago Seage, resigned last week upon news that the Spanish renewable energy behemoth was near bankruptcy -- threatening 29,000 jobs in what could be Spain's largest-ever corporate failure.