The U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) will hold its 2014 EIA Energy Conference on July 14 and 15, 2014. The EIA Energy Conference has become a great forum for addressing energy issues in the United States and around the world. This event will bring together thought leaders from industry, government, and academia to discuss current and future challenges facing domestic and international energy markets and policymakers. The conference will feature keynote speakers including: Congressman Fred Upton, Chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee; Maria van der Hoeven, Executive Director of the International Energy Agency; Eric Slifka, President and Chief Executive Officer of Global Partners LP; and Daniel Yergin, Pulitzer Prize-winning author and Vice Chairman of IHS.- SolarCity Corporation has signed a definitive agreement to acquire Silevo, a solar technology and manufacturing company whose modules have achieved a unique combination of high energy output and low cost. The transaction was announced, and its significance described in detail, in a post from SolarCity Chairman Elon Musk, Co-founder and Chief Technology Officer Peter Rive and Co-founder and Chief Executive Officer Lyndon Rive on SolarCity’s blog.
- Sunetric Designs (subsidiary of RSG Energy) has deployed a 198.8 kilowatt (kW) photovoltaic (PV) system with automated curtailment and smart-grid controls at a popular beachfront resort on the island of Kauai in Hawaii. The system is funded and owned by Kairos Energy Capital, a Hawaii-based merchant bank which finances and invests in solar. The system assures all electricity generated by the PV system is consumed by the local facility and not fed back into the utility grid. This reduces the impact on the local circuit and makes it easier for the island’s electric utility provider, Kauai Island Utility Cooperative (KIUC), to manage the grid.
- First Reserve, a global private equity and infrastructure investment firm exclusively focused on energy, has announced the closing of its second energy infrastructure fund, First Reserve Energy Infrastructure Fund II, L.P. Formally launched eight months ago, the Fund was oversubscribed beyond its initial target of US$2 billion, ultimately closing at its US$2.5 billion hard cap. First Reserve now has over US$4 billion dedicated to investing in energy infrastructure opportunities. FREIF II will continue to focus on long-lived energy infrastructure investments throughout the energy value chain, including (1) contracted midstream, such as pipelines, storage and LNG facilities; (2) contracted power, which includes both renewable and conventional generations; (3) regulated transmission and distribution; and (4) contracted energy assets including floating storage facilities and other essential large-scale energy infrastructure assets.
