Why the West Needs to Secure Heavy Rare Earths for the Future of Advanced Manufacturing

Global energy storage owner-operator BW ESS and Getxo-based energy storage developer Ibersun have signed a joint venture to develop, in its first phase, 2.2GW of utility-scale battery energy storage system (BESS) projects across Spain.

The Spanish battery energy storage market is growing to become one of the largest in Europe and the country’s National Integrated Energy and Climate Plan sets the target at 22.5 GW by 2030. Spain’s increasing need for energy storage capacity is driven by a growth of solar and wind generation and intensified by the limited interconnection between the Iberian peninsula and its European neighbours. In addition to stabilising the energy grid, the expansion of Spain’s BESS fleet will also prevent energy from being wasted, when supply exceeds demand.

The joint venture, targeting greenfield, four-hour duration assets, will progress an initial 2.2 GW pipeline of eight projects across Spain. These projects will be owned equally by BW ESS and Ibersun. The partners expect each project to achieve Ready-to-Build status within two years and anticipate pursuing a diverse range of revenue generation strategies. 

Based in the Basque Country and founded by executives with more than 25 years’ experience in the energy sector in Spain and worldwide, Ibersun has been developing renewable energy projects in Spain since its establishment in 2019 with a focus on solar and, more recently, BESS.

Isaac Garcia Moreno, Executive Director of BW ESS, said: "We are proud to be developing our first projects in Spain with Ibersun, a trusted partner with over 25 years of market experience. We have a common objective to improve Spain’s grid resilience and support the market’s ambitious energy storage growth targets. Recent events have underlined that there’s no time to waste in working towards these goals, and we look forward to applying a wealth of experience drawn from multiple global markets to the Spanish context.”

Javier Arkotxa and Jose Antonio Gutiérrez, Directors and Founders of Ibersun, added: "It’s essential for us that our work blends seamlessly and respectfully with its surroundings and we are delighted to be partnering with a business who shares these priorities. Spain is one of the largest markets for BESS and our joint venture with a global leader like BW ESS is going to help us in our efforts to continue developing the country’s energy potential.”

BW ESS | https://bw-ess.com/ 

Ibersun | https://ibersun.es/en/

Cadiz Inc. (NASDAQ: CDZI) announced that it has entered into a Memorandum of Understanding with UK-based Hoku Energy Limited and its affiliates (the "MOU" or "agreement") to develop a major clean energy campus at Cadiz Ranch in California's Mojave Desert. The MOU with Hoku represents the second prospective land lease for clean energy development that the Company has executed within the past year and furthers the Company's commitment to sustainable development of its land and water assets.

The MOU provides Hoku Energy with a three-year exclusive option to develop the project on more than 10,000 acres at Cadiz Ranch.  The Hoku project could include green hydrogen production facilities, large-scale renewable and low carbon power generation, large scale battery storage facilities, and integrated digital infrastructure, such as data centers, on the leased property or integrated with facilities off the leased property.

The agreement does not restrict existing and planned commercial development at Cadiz, including current agricultural operations, development of the Mojave Groundwater Bank, development of a green hydrogen production facility in partnership with RIC Energy and reserves 400 acres for additional commercial development which could include a data center.  Under the agreement, if a data center is developed within this 400-acre area, Hoku Energy will have a right of first refusal to supply power to that facility.

"This agreement with Hoku Energy is the capstone of our long-term land use strategy," said Susan Kennedy, Chair of Cadiz Inc. "Hoku Energy's vision aligns with our mission to support sustainable, scaled development of critical energy and water infrastructure in California and the Southwest."

The Cadiz property's extensive infrastructure—including access to rail lines, water resources, and pipelines and pipeline corridors—makes it well suited for large-scale, integrated renewable energy and data center development.  The agreement with Hoku complements Cadiz's development of its flagship water supply and storage project, the Mojave Groundwater Bank, and follows Cadiz's 2024 agreement with RIC Energy to develop up to 3,000 acres for green hydrogen production. Together, the RIC and Hoku projects are expected to position Cadiz Ranch as one of the largest clean energy campuses and green hydrogen production hubs in North America.

Additional details about the MOU are included in a Current Report on Form 8K filed by Cadiz today with the SEC.   

Cadiz | https://www.cadizinc.com

Yokogawa Electric Corporation celebrates the 50th anniversary of the announcement of its flagship product, CENTUM, a pioneering distributed control system (DCS) that has enabled a new era of automation and control of a wide range of plants and industrial processes.

Now in its 10th generation, CENTUM was announced as the world’s first DCS in June 1975 and forever changed the way the industry does plant control management. As one of the first control systems to adopt the use of microprocessors and a non-analog CRT interface, CENTUM has continued to reinvent itself over the generations, shrinking in physical size while increasing in functionality, and has gained the ability to integrate all production-related functions and information. CENTUM’s scalable and interoperable architecture enabled it to support very large and complex plants. Together with the company’s unique pair & spare dual redundant design, CENTUM continues to maintain its legacy of extraordinarily high system availability, while expanding its scope of monitoring and control by seamlessly connecting to and managing the latest equipment and devices in the digital era.

Kunimasa Shigeno, President and CEO of Yokogawa, said, “Industries around the world are undergoing a major transformation to build a more sustainable society. Expectations for control technology are higher than ever, ranging from the ever-present need for enhancements to safety and efficiency and for progress to be made in digitalization and decarbonization. CENTUM is now evolving beyond the boundaries of a traditional DCS and growing into a versatile solution that addresses diverse business needs. We remain committed to delivering both safety and reliability while providing value in new ways that will drive transformation and support the future of industry every step of the way.”

CENTUM has continued to evolve as a core monitoring and control system, delivering reliability, stability, and compatibility while driving productivity improvements in plants worldwide. Looking ahead, Yokogawa remains committed to preserving this legacy while pursuing sustainability and engaging in continuous innovation, delivering technologies for the industries of tomorrow, with the goal of autonomous operations.

Yokogawa | www.yokogawa.com

Schneider Electric, the leader in the digital transformation of energy management and automation, announced new data centre solutions specifically engineered to meet the intensive demands of next-generation AI cluster architectures. Evolving its EcoStruxure Data Centre Solutions portfolio, Schneider Electric introduced a Prefabricated Modular EcoStruxure Pod Data Centre solution that consolidates infrastructure for liquid cooling, high-power busway and high-density NetShelter Racks. In addition, EcoStruxure Rack Solutions incorporate detailed rack configurations and frameworks designed to accelerate High Performance Computing (HPC) and AI data centre deployments. The new EcoStruxure Pod Data Centre and EcoStruxure Rack Solutions are now available globally.

Organizations are deploying AI clusters and grappling with extreme rack power densities, which are projected to reach 1MW and beyond. Schneider Electric’s new line of solutions equips customers with integrated, data-validated, and easily scaled white space solutions that address new challenges in pod and rack design, power distribution and thermal management.

“The sheer power and density required for AI clusters create bottlenecks that demand a new approach to data centre architecture,” said Himamshu Prasad, senior vice president of EcoStruxure IT, Transactional & Edge and Energy Storage Centre of Excellence at Schneider Electric. “Customers need integrated infrastructure solutions that not only handle extreme thermal loads and dynamic power profiles but also deploy rapidly, scale predictably, and operate efficiently and sustainably. Our innovative next-generation EcoStruxure solutions that support NVIDIA technology address these critical requirements head on.”

New Product Overview

• Prefabricated Modular EcoStruxure Pod Data Centre: Prefabricated, scalable pod architecture enables operators to deploy high-density racks, supporting pods up to 1MW and beyond, at scale. Engineered-to-order, the new pod infrastructure offers flexibility and supports liquid cooling, power busway, complex cabling, as well as hot aisle containment, InRow and rear door heat exchanger cooling architectures. The Prefabricated Modular EcoStruxure Pod Data Centre is now shipping pre-designed and pre-assembled with all components for rapid deployment to support high-density workloads.
• EcoStruxure Rack Solutions: These reliable, high-density rack systems adapt to EIA, ORV3 and NVIDIA MGX modular design standards approved by leading IT chip and server manufacturers. Configurations accommodate a wide array of power and cooling distribution schemes and employ Motivair by Schneider Electric in-rack liquid cooling, as well as new and expanded rack and power distribution products, including:
• NetShelter SX Advanced Enclosure: This new line features taller, deeper, and stronger racks to support increased weight, cabling and infrastructure. NetShelter SX Advanced features a reinforced shipload rating and is safeguarded with shock packaging, ensuring secure transport of AI servers and liquid cooling systems.
• NetShelter Rack PDU Advanced: These power distribution units have been updated to support the high-current power needs of AI servers. Designed for efficient rack layouts, the NetShelter Rack PDU Advanced offers compact vertical and horizontal models with higher counts of dedicated circuits. Intelligent operational features now enabled by Schneider Electric’s Network Management Card enhance security and provide seamless integration to EcoStruxure IT.
• NetShelter Open Architecture: This Open Compute Project (OCP) inspired rack architecture is available as a configure-to-order solution and includes open rack standards, power shelf and in-rack busbar. As part of this, a new Schneider Electric rack system has also been developed to support the NVIDIA GB200 NVL72 system that utilizes the NVIDIA MGX architecture in its rack design, integrating Schneider Electric into NVIDIA's HGX and MGX ecosystems for the first time.

“Schneider Electric’s innovative solutions provide the reliable, scalable infrastructure our customers need to accelerate their AI initiatives,” said Vladimir Troy, vice president of data centre engineering, operations, enterprise software and cloud services at NVIDIA. “Together, we’re addressing the rapidly growing demands of AI factories — from kilowatt to megawatt-scale racks—and delivering future-proof solutions that maximize scalability, density and efficiency.”

The new solutions and suite of engineered data centre reference designs equip data centre operators and Schneider Electric’s partner ecosystem with the infrastructure and information needed to deploy powerful AI clusters faster and more reliably while addressing common barriers to adoption, including:

• Reliable power and cooling for AI workloads
• Deployment complexity and risk
• Speed to market and supply chain resilience
• Skills gap in managing advanced infrastructure

These enhanced EcoStruxure offerings add to Schneider Electric’s robust line of fully integrated, end-to-end AI infrastructure solutions — spanning advanced hardware, intelligent software, services such as EcoCare and EcoConsult for Data Centres, and strategic industry partnerships with key IT players. Schneider Electric is the partner of choice for building efficient, resilient, scalable and AI-optimized data centres.

Schneider Electric | se.ca 

Emeren Group Ltd ("Emeren" or the "Company") (NYSE: SOL), a leading global solar project developer, owner, and operator, announced that it has entered into a definitive Agreement and Plan of Merger (the "Merger Agreement") with Shurya Vitra Ltd., a business company incorporated under the Laws of the British Virgin Islands ("Parent"), and Emeren Holdings Ltd, a business company incorporated under the Laws of the British Virgin Islands and a wholly owned subsidiary of Parent ("Merger Sub"), pursuant to which the Parent will acquire the Company for US$0.20 in cash per ordinary share of the Company (the "Shares"), or US$2.00 in cash per American Depositary Share of the Company (each, an "ADS", representing ten Shares).

Subject to the terms and conditions of the Merger Agreement, at the effective time of the merger (the "Effective Time"), Merger Sub will merge with and into the Company, with the Company surviving the Merger as the surviving company and becoming a wholly-owned subsidiary of Parent (the "Merger"). At the Effective Time, each of the Company's ordinary shares issued, outstanding and not represented by ADS immediately prior to the Effective Time, other than the Excluded Shares and the Dissenting Shares (each as defined in the Merger Agreement), will be cancelled and cease to exist in exchange for the right to receive US$0.20 in cash and without interest, and each ADS of the Company, other than ADSs representing the Excluded Shares, together with each Share represented by such ADSs, will be cancelled in exchange for the right to receive US$2.00 in cash and without interest.

In connection with the Merger Agreement, Himanshu H. Shah has entered into an equity commitment letter with the Parent, pursuant to which the Mr. Shah committed to invest in the Parent at or immediately prior to the Effective Time an equity contribution solely for the purpose of funding, to the extent necessary to fund, such portion of the Merger consideration and such other amounts required to be paid by Parent pursuant to and in accordance with the Merger Agreement, together with related fees and expenses. For the avoidance of doubt such fees and expenses, does not include any termination fees payable by Parent under the Merger Agreement and certain obligations set forth in the limited guarantee, which Mr. Shah has entered into in favor of the Company in respect of certain payment obligations of the Parent under the Merger Agreement.

The Company's board of directors (the "Board"), acting upon the unanimous recommendation of a committee of independent directors established by the Board (the "Special Committee"), approved the Merger Agreement and the Merger and resolved to recommend that the Company's shareholders vote to authorize and approve the Merger Agreement and the Merger. The Special Committee negotiated the terms of the Merger Agreement with the assistance of its financial and legal advisors.

The Merger, which is currently expected to close during the third quarter of 2025, is subject to customary closing conditions including approval by the Company's shareholders of the Merger Agreement and the transactions contemplated by the Merger Agreement. If completed, the Merger will result in the Company becoming a privately held company and its Shares and ADSs will no longer be listed on the New York Stock Exchange.

Kroll, LLC is serving as the financial advisor to the Special Committee. Morrison & Foerster LLP is serving as the U.S. legal counsel to the Special Committee. Harney Westwood & Riegels (UK) LLP is serving as British Virgin Islands legal counsel to the Special Committee.  DLA Piper LLP (US) is serving as the U.S. legal counsel to Parent and Mr. Shah. 

Emeren Group | www.emeren.com

Aptera Motors is set to unveil its first fully complete solar electric validation vehicle during a YouTube Live broadcast on June 27, 2025, at 3:00 PM Pacific Time. 

For the first time, Aptera will showcase a vehicle featuring every system a future owner would expect—from climate control and infotainment to the vision system and full solar integration. It represents a unified, real-world version of the design Aptera intends to mass-produce, with nearly 50,000 reservations demonstrating strong demand for this innovative solar electric vehicle.

“This is the moment we’ve been building toward,” said Chris Anthony, Co-CEO of Aptera. “This vehicle is built to the design we plan to produce at scale and deliver to our eager reservation holders.” 

Aptera has successfully moved beyond the prototyping phase and is building multiple validation vehicles simultaneously. These vehicles play a critical role in the company’s ongoing testing program. While some refinements are anticipated as the process progresses, they closely represent the vehicles Aptera expects to assemble for customers. 

“With few exceptions, virtually every circuit, every bit of software and firmware—is designed entirely in-house,” said Steve Fambro, Co-CEO of Aptera. “From the vehicle computers and battery management system to the solar panels and charge controller, it’s all part of Aptera’s own tightly integrated hardware and software stack. Every element works in concert to achieve unparalleled energy efficiency. It’s a system that’s not only robust and elegant, but purpose-built to support our radically efficient architecture.” 

Following the reveal, Aptera plans to take the vehicle on a cross-country road trip later this summer, showcasing its solar-powered capabilities and collecting valuable real-world data as the company continues through its validation plan and moves closer to delivering on the promise of solar mobility. 

Watch the reveal live on YouTube at https://youtube.com/live/yNs02F0t_9U on June 27 at 3:00 PM Pacific Time.

Aptera Motors Corp. | aptera.us

Sol by Sunna Design, a global leader in solar lighting for over 35 years, proudly announces the launch of the EverGen 3, its most advanced solar-powered outdoor lighting system yet. The EverGen 3 embodies Sol’s “A Different Light” ethos by offering a solution that performs like a gridconnected system while delivering all the benefits of solar.

Designed for municipalities, utilities, developers, and commercial projects, the EverGen 3 addresses today’s infrastructure challenges: rising energy costs, copper wire theft, and the growing demand for resilient, low-maintenance lighting solutions that work even when the grid doesn’t.

“The EverGen 3 is everything a solar light should be,” said Ignace de Prest, CEO. “We’ve designed a system that looks and performs like a traditional light but runs entirely on clean energy. That means no compromises—just reliable lighting, lower emissions, and safer outdoor spaces for more people.”

Unlike typical one-size-fits-all solar lights, each EverGen 3 is custom-built to match the site’s solar conditions, output, and runtime requirements. It pairs this tailored approach with high-performance fixture options from Acuity, America’s largest fixture manufacturer, to provide quality light that meets IES standards.

“Our goal is to make solar lighting accessible to more communities, no matter the scale or budget,” said de Prest. “From compact, all-in-one systems to our affordable all-in-two solution, we offer a full range of options. The EverGen 3 extends that range even further, giving cities, utilities, and developers a powerful, grid-comparable alternative that meets rigorous lighting standards while reducing emissions and costs.”

Key features:

• Combines solar and grid power to ensure uninterrupted lighting, with options for solar-first use or timed grid backup.

• Custom lighting profiles: Every system is tailored to the project, with advanced dimming, scheduling, and output controls.

• Remote monitoring and controls: GSM technology and SunnaCloud software enables remote diagnostics, alerts, and system management from anywhere. D4i-enabled networked lighting controls support seamless integration into smart city platforms as they evolve.

• 10-year full-product warranty: The EverGen 3 is backed by Sol’s industry-leading warranty, guaranteeing performance, durability, and peace of mind.

The EverGen 3 marks a turning point for solar-powered infrastructure. By combining smart design, reliable performance, and smart city integrations, Sol is setting a new benchmark for what outdoor lighting can— and should—do in 2025 and beyond.

Sol by Sunna Design | https://evergen.solarlighting.com/