EGN NEWS DESK
Swell Energy, a California-based installer and financier of distributed vitality storage, has acquired Renu Energy Solutions, a regional installer masking the Carolinas and Georgia, for an undisclosed sum.
Swell’s enterprise depends on tying collectively a whole lot or hundreds of dwelling batteries into an combination digital energy plant, or VPP, which can be utilized by utilities to bolster the grid; householders who comply with take part can earn compensation. The addition of Renu provides Swell extra rooftops and batteries to work with, in addition to an installer community that extends past California, at present the most important solar-plus-storage market.
While the merger and acquisition historical past of the U.S. residential photo voltaic market has been about consolidation and rising networks of unbiased installers, Swell’s acquisition of Renu is motivated by the necessity to develop the inhabitants of VPP contributors — even when it’s within the Southeastern U.S., which tends to have decrease electrical energy charges and fewer rooftop-solar-friendly coverage.
Renu has put in about 5,000 programs since its founding in 2010. Most are residential, although it has additionally labored on some bigger industrial vitality initiatives like a photo voltaic set up on the Charlotte Motor Speedway.
Swell claims that Renu has an “distinctive” variety of prospects who’ve opted to mix battery storage with their photo voltaic rooftops, a metric referred to as “attachment price.” The agency additionally has a vertically built-in gross sales and achievement group that guides the shopper by the set up and VPP course of from begin to end.
But offers like these can have a human value. As a part of the acquisition, Swell carried out “a workforce restructuring,” in keeping with the corporate, which interprets to what one present Swell worker known as “deep” cuts in personnel. The mixed Swell plus Renu staff is now roughly 250 workers, which the corporate says is a bigger total workforce than pre-acquisition. Swell declined to supply particulars on the variety of workers or groups affected.
