8minutenergy Renewables Rebrands As 8minute Solar Energy
8minutenergy Renewables, the United States’ largest private solar and storage developer, announced this week that it was rebranding as 8minute Solar Energy, in pursuit of its belief that solar is the future of energy production.
Image Credit: 8minute Solar Energy
It has been a busy period of time for the Los Angeles-based solar developer, which just last December first announced the completion and commercial operation of the 328 megawatt (MW) Mount Signal 3 Solar Farm in California, and then revealed that co-founder Tom Buttgenbach and the 8minutenergy management team will purchase shares owned by co-founder Martin Hermann to gain full ownership of the company.
“There has never been a more exciting time in the U.S. energy market,” said Tom Buttgenbach in December. “The industry’s transforming to where renewables will be the dominant form of power now that generation costs are lower than fossil fuels. This evolution will be led by large-scale solar and storage projects, and 8minutenergy will continue to be at the vanguard of the industry. I’m grateful to our incredibly talented team and to Martin for their hard work over the past nine years.”
This was followed up days later with the announcement that the company had entered into a $200 million joint venture with J.P. Morgan Asset Management to support 8minute’s current 10.7 gigawatt (GW) pipeline of solar + storage projects.
“We’ve been very impressed with the 8minute team and their ability to deliver sustainable returns through their utility-scale solar projects,” explained Michael Lehman, Managing Director and Portfolio Manager of J.P. Morgan Asset Management. “8minute has a premier development process that consistently delivers attractive solar projects with long term, contracted cash flows.”
Announced on Monday, then, it is little surprise that the company is looking to continue its remodelling and doubling down on its belief that solar energy is the future of energy. The company unveiled its new name along with a new logo, simplified domain name, and “new corporate brand identity.” According to the company’s Monday press release, the new name and direction intends to reflect its “belief that large-scale solar power plants with integrated energy storage will dominate the future of energy generation.” And with a solar and storage project portfolio of over 14 GW, the company is well on to its way to playing its part in increasing solar + storage’s dominance.
“Solar has arrived as the market leader for new power generation in the US and will become the dominant form of power generation in the future,” said Tom Buttgenbach, President and CEO of 8minute. “It is low in cost, highly predictable, highly reliable, and able to beat fossil fuels on every front. This is a paradigm shift in the industry, and I wanted our name to better reflect that belief.”
“Over the next year 8minute will be announcing some of the largest and most innovative solar and storage centers ever to be built. As we move into our second decade as a company, I look forward to 8minute being at the vanguard of the energy industry for decades to come.”
The company’s signal naming convention, however, “8minute,” stems from the fact that it takes 8 minutes for energy from the Sun to reach the Earth.
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