Tesla now charges more for its Powerwall than it did when the product launched in October 2016.

The company's website now lists the starting price for the 7 kilowatt/13.5 kilowatt-hour storage system as $5,900 — a $400 increase from the original list price of $5,500. The actual price to a customer will be higher still, because it includes supporting hardware, installation and other fees.

The $5,900 rate applies to new orders; orders placed before February 22 will have the previous pricing, a Tesla spokesperson clarified by email Thursday. 

"Tesla evaluates its global pricing of energy products based on various factors and continues

Ohmconnect has quietly grown into a major player in residential behavioral demand response, with a utility-independent platform that’s allowing hundreds of thousands of Californians get paid for reducing household energy use at critical peak hours.

On Tuesday, the San Francisco-based startup revealed for the first time just how big it has become: 300,000 customers, or “energy sharers,” with a collective 100 megawatts of load they’re able to shed at the push of a properly “game-ified” text or tweet. 

Ohmconnect also revealed how much it has raised from venture capital investors to get there, announcing an $8.5 million Series B round that brings its total

SunPower couldn’t convince the Trump administration to abandon tariffs on imported solar panels. So now it plans to buy one of the companies pushing the tariffs in the first place.

Yesterday, SunPower unveiled plans to acquire SolarWorld’s U.S. operations. Two months ago, CEO Tom Werner said SunPower was going to divest from America. But now he’s buying his way back in.

In this week's episode, we'll explain how Trump's demands for tariffs are shifting the PV manufacturing landscape.

Then, 173 countries agreed to cut emissions from the shipping sector by 2050. What are the technological solutions for a sector that could make up

U.S.-based solar firm SunPower was one of the most outspoken critics of new solar tariffs, imposed under the Section 201 trade case brought by Suniva and SolarWorld Americas.

As an American company that makes higher-priced high efficiency solar modules predominantly in Mexico and Asia, SunPower was hard hit when the Trump administration slapped 30 percent import tariffs in virtually all foreign-made solar panels.

In that context, SunPower’s announcement on Wednesday that it intends to acquire trade case petitioner SolarWorld Americas came as a surprise to many.

But for SunPower CEO Tom Werner, the case for buying the Hillsboro, Oregon-based solar manufacturer became

Clean Energy Group has published a battery guide for activists and foundations as pressure groups increasingly see energy storage as a key component of their clean-energy toolkits.  

The Vermont-based nonprofit said its report, Jump-Start: How Activists and Foundations Can Champion Battery Storage to Recharge the Clean Energy Transition, should prompt action and support to advance battery storage, either deployed alone or paired with renewables.

The publication surveys 10 areas where batteries are transforming the energy system, from reducing demand charges to replacing peaker plants. 

It also proposes 50 actions nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) can promote to accelerate rates of battery

Commercial solar financier Wunder Capital announced Wednesday the close of its Series B financing, with a $112 million equity and debt raise led by New York investment firm Cyrus Capital Partners.

Cyrus Partner John Rapaport will join Wunder’s board of directors. John Witchel, co-founder of peer-to-peer lender Prosper, will join the company’s advisory board.

Wunder said the raise typifies a “natural progression” in alternative lending that starts with funding from pure-play retail, moves to registered investment advisers, and eventually works its way up to big institutional investors.

“Closing this big facility with Cyrus is us announcing ourselves into this institutional investor space,” said Wunder co-founder

Western original equipment manufacturers, predominantly from Europe, still hold sway over the global wind market despite a host of Chinese competitors, new figures show. 

According to the latest Global Wind Turbine OEM Market Share report from Wood Mackenzie’s MAKE Consulting, there are seven Chinese firms versus seven Western firms in the top 15 by market share, with India’s Suzlon completing the mix. 

But the Western players, which include first-place Siemens Gamesa Renewable Energy (SGRE) and second-place Vestas, hold almost 58 percent of the global market, compared to less than 29 percent for Chinese concerns. Other brands add roughly 13 percent. 

And while MAKE

Unconfirmed rumors swirled for weeks: SunPower was eyeing SolarWorld's U.S. manufacturing assets.

It made sense. SolarWorld has been looking for a buyer since last summer; SunPower desperately needed a bigger American manufacturing presence to avoid tariffs.

Turns out, the rumors were true.

On Wednesday morning, SunPower unveiled plans to acquire SolarWorld Americas for an undisclosed amount. If approved by U.S. and German regulators, the acquisition would add 430 megawatts of cell capacity and 550 megawatts of module capacity to SunPower's operations. The company would rival First Solar as the largest U.S. maker of solar modules.

"From a strategy perspective, you can