First Solar, the largest solar panel maker in the US, announced today that it will supply clean energy company National Grid Renewables with 1.6 gigawatts (GW) of solar panels – and that’s a very big deal.
Minneapolis-based National Grid Renewables is part of the Ventures division of National Grid plc, one of the world’s largest publicly listed utilities with its HQ in the UK. National Grid Renewables has a portfolio of solar, wind, and energy storage projects throughout the US in various stages of development, construction, and operation.
First Solar is supplying National Grid Renewables with its Series 7 thin-film solar modules. The up to 540-watt panels combine the company’s thin-film cadmium telluride technology with a larger form factor and have up to 19.3% efficiency and a 30-year warranty.
The Series 7 panels are designed and developed at First Solar’s factories in California and Ohio.
First Solar says that the Series 7 panels’ frameless design improves soiling and show shedding, and it also says that it offers the solar industry’s only solar cell cracking warranty.
This new 1.6 GW order expands First Solar’s supply of solar panels to National Grid Renewables to over 4 GW, as the two companies made an agreement for 2 GW of solar panels in June of this year.
National Grid Renewables and First Solar have also partnered on multiple projects over a decade, including the 200-megawatt (MW) Prairie Wolf Solar Project, in Illinois, and, in Texas, the Noble Solar (275 MW) and Storage Project (125 MW).
Last month, First Solar announced that it will invest up to $1.2 billion to ramp up production of US-made solar panels.
Electrek’s Take
This may look like a typical business story – X company orders Y product from Z company – but here’s why it’s noteworthy.
Secondly, every time news like this is announced, it’s evidence that the Biden administration’s Inflation Reduction Act is giving American manufacturing a major shot in the arm.
This will create even more jobs, and domestic manufacturing will also smooth out US supply chain snags. US manufacturing also means the distance the solar panels need to travel will be shorter, which means less transport emissions are created.
There’s also accountability here when it comes to ethical manufacturing, as First Solar is the only company among the 10 largest solar manufacturers globally to be a member of the Responsible Business Alliance, the world’s largest industry coalition that supports the rights and well-being of workers and communities in the global supply chain.
This agreement is yet more evidence of a major shift in US renewables manufacturing. And that never fails to be exciting.
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U.S. President Donald Trump speaks to reporters onboard Air Force One en route to the NATO summit in The Hague, Netherlands, June 24, 2025.
Brian Snyder | Reuters
The ceasefire between Israel and Iran appears to be holding. In yesterday’s newsletter, we talked about how a blitzkrieg of missile-led diplomacy seemed to help de-escalate tensions.
The flipside of that strange path to a truce is that missiles are, well, fundamentally weapons. Mere hours after both countries agreed to the ceasefire, Israel said its longtime rival had fired missiles into its borders — an accusation which Tehran denied — and was preparing to “respond forcefully.” Probably with more missiles.
U.S. President Donald Trump — who reportedly brokered the ceasefire with Qatar’s Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani — expressed frustration with those developments.
“I’m not happy with them. I’m not happy with Iran either but I’m really unhappy if Israel is going out this morning,” Trump told a reporter pool en route to the NATO summit in the Netherlands.
His admonishments seemed to work. There is now a fragile armistice between the two countries.
Oil prices fell and U.S. stocks jumped.
Reuters uploaded a photo of Israeli residents playing frisbee at the beach on June 24. Flights at Israel’s Ben Gurion Airport are resuming, and Iran’s airspace is partially open, according to flight monitoring firm FlightRadar24, CNBC reported at around 3 a.m. Singapore time.
Three hours after that update, NBC News, citing three people familiar with the matter, reported that an initial assessment from the U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency found the American strikes on Iran’s nuclear sites on Saturdayleft “core pieces … still intact.”
Trump pushed backed on those accusations Tuesday night, writing that “THE NUCLEAR SITES IN IRAN ARE COMPLETELY DESTROYED!”
And so it goes.
What you need to know today
Israel-Iran ceasefire holds, for now The fragile ceasefire between Israel and Iran, announced by Trump on Monday, appears to be holding. Israel on Tuesday said it would honor the ceasefire so long as Iran does the same. Earlier in the day, both countries accused each other of violating the truce, and said they were ready to retaliate, prompting Trump to say he’s “not happy” with them. Stay updated on the Israel-Iran conflict with CNBC’s live blog here.
Oil pares losses Oil prices regained some ground during Asia trading hours Wednesday. Both U.S. crude oil and global benchmark Brent rose around 1.5%. On Tuesday stateside, oil prices tumbled roughly 6%. Earlier in the day, Trump said China can keep buying oil from Iran, in what seemed like a sign that the U.S. may soften its pressure campaign against Tehran.
Powell says Fed is ‘well positioned to wait’ At a U.S. congressional hearing Tuesday, Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell said the economy was still strong. But he noted that inflation is still above the central bank’s target of 2%, and the Fed has an “obligation” to prevent tariffs from becoming “an ongoing inflation problem.” In combination, those considerations make the Fed “well positioned to wait” before making a decision on interest rates.
Don’t make trade political: Chinese premier “Globalization will not be reversed,” Chinese Premier Li Qiang said on Wednesday through an official English translation at the World Economic Forum’s annual conference in China, often dubbed “Summer Davos.” Li urged all sides not to turn trade into a political or security issue, and said engaging in the international economy is a way of “reshaping the rules and order.”
[PRO] Not ‘bullish enough’ on rally: HSBC The S&P 500′s rally off its April lows has brought it back to roughly 1% off its record high in a very short time. It’s an advance that has perplexed many investors, who worry that another pullback is on the horizon. But Max Kettner, chief multi-asset strategist at HSBC, said he worries he’s not “bullish enough” on the current rally.
And finally…
Renminbi notes next to U.S. dollar notes at a Kasikornbank in Bangkok, Thailand, Jan. 26, 2023.
China is devising more ways for foreign institutions to use the yuan, as international confidence in the U.S. dollar falters.
In a sign of growing resolve in Beijing to lure the world away from the dollar, People’s Bank of China Governor Pan Gongsheng announced plans last week to set up a center for digital yuan internationalization in Shanghai and promote the trading of yuan foreign exchange futures. Beijing has already rolled out a digital version of its currency to replace some cash and coins in circulation.
US President Donald Trump speaks to reporters about the Israel-Iran conflict, aboard Air Force One on June 24, 2025, while traveling to attend the NATO’s Heads of State and Government summit in The Hague in the Netherlands.
Brendan Smialowski | Afp | Getty Images
The ceasefire between Israel and Iran appears to be holding. In yesterday’s newsletter, we talked about how a blitzkrieg of missile-led diplomacy seemed to help de-escalate tensions.
The flipside of that strange path to a truce is that missiles, well, are fundamentally weapons. Mere hours after both countries agreed to the ceasefire, Israel said its longtime rival had fired missiles into its borders — an accusation which Tehran denied — and was preparing to “respond forcefully.” Probably with more missiles.
U.S. President Donald Trump — who reportedly brokered the ceasefire with Qatar’s Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani — expressed frustration with those developments.
“I’m not happy with them. I’m not happy with Iran either but I’m really unhappy if Israel is going out this morning,” Trump told a reporter pool en route to the NATO summit in the Netherlands.
His admonishments seemed to work. There is now a fragile armistice between the two countries.
Oil prices fell and U.S. stocks jumped.
Reuters uploaded a photo of Israeli residents playing frisbee at the beach on June 24. Flights at Israel’s Ben Gurion Airport are resuming, and Iran’s airspace is partially open, according to flight monitoring firm FlightRadar24, CNBC reported at around 3 a.m. Singapore time.
Three hours after that update, NBC News, citing three people familiar with the matter, reported that an initial assessment from the U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency found the American strikes on Iran’s nuclear sites on Saturdayleft “core pieces … still intact.”
And so it goes.
What you need to know today
Israel-Iran ceasefire holds, for now The fragile ceasefire between Israel and Iran, announced by Trump on Monday, appears to be holding. Israel on Tuesday said it would honor the ceasefire so long as Iran does the same. Earlier in the day, both countries accused each other of violating the truce, and said they were ready to retaliate, prompting Trump to say he’s “not happy” with them. Stay updated on the Israel-Iran conflict with CNBC’s live blog here.
Oil prices slump for a second day Oil prices tumbled Tuesday, its second day of declines, as the market betthat the risk of a major supply disruption had faded. U.S. crude oil settled down 6% at $64.37 a barrel while the global benchmark Brent fell 6.1%, to $67.14 during U.S. trading. Prices closed 7% lower on Monday. Earlier Tuesday, Trump said China can keep buying oil from Iran, in what seemed like a sign that the U.S. may soften its pressure campaign against Tehran.
Powell says Fed is ‘well positioned to wait’ At a U.S. congressional hearing Tuesday, Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell said the economy was still strong. But he noted that inflation is still above the central bank’s target of 2%, and the Fed has an “obligation” to prevent tariffs from becoming “an ongoing inflation problem.” In combination, those considerationsmake the Fed “well positioned to wait” before making a decision on interest rates.
U.S. is committed to NATO: Secretary-General There is “total commitment by the U.S. president and the U.S. senior leadership to NATO,” the military alliance’s Secretary-General Mark Rutte said Tuesday morning, as the summit kicked off in The Hague, Netherlands. But America expects Europe and Canada to spend as much as the U.S. does on defense. Ahead of the summit, members agreed to increase defense spending to 5% of gross domestic product by 2035.
[PRO] Not ‘bullish enough’ on rally: HSBC The S&P 500′s rally off its April lows has brought it back to roughly 1% off its record high in a very short time. It’s an advance that has perplexed many investors, who worry that another pullback is on the horizon. But Max Kettner, chief multi-asset strategist at HSBC, said he worries he’s not “bullish enough” on the current rally.
And finally…
Pictures from the semi-official Tasnim news agency show the Stena Impero being seized and detained between July 19 and July 21, 2019 near strait of Hormuz, Iran.
According to Angeliki Frangou, a fourth-generation shipowner and chairman and CEO of Greece-based Navios Maritime Partners, which owns and operates dry cargo ships and tankers, vessels in the Strait of Hormuz are still being threatened by continuous GPS signal blocking.
“We have had about 20% less passage of vessels through the Strait of Hormuz, and vessels are waiting outside,” Frangou told CNBC.
“You are hearing a lot from the liner [ocean shipping] companies that they are transiting only during daytime because of the jamming of GPS signals of vessels. They don’t want to pass during the nighttime because they find it dangerous. So it’s a very fluid situation,” Frangou said.
Mercedes-Benz is sending nearly 5,000 electric vans to Amazon’s European delivery partners in its biggest EV handoff to date. The fleet will hit the streets in five countries in the coming months.
Three-quarters of the fleet are Mercedes’ larger eSprinter vans, while the rest are the more compact eVito panel vans. More than 2,500 are going to Germany, and Amazon says this new EV fleet will help deliver more than 200 million parcels a year across Europe.
This is the biggest EV order Mercedes-Benz Vans has ever received. It builds on a partnership that started in 2020, when Amazon first added more than 1,800 electric vans from Mercedes to its delivery network.
“We’re further intensifying our long-standing relationship with Amazon and working together toward an all-electric future of transport,” said Sagree Sardien, head of sales & marketing at Mercedes-Benz Vans. “Our eVito and eSprinter are perfectly tailored to meet the demands of our commercial customers regarding efficiency and range.”
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In 2020, Mercedes-Benz joined Amazon’s Climate Pledge, a commitment Amazon co-founded with Global Optimism to reach net zero by 2040.
Both the eSprinter and eVito are designed with delivery drivers in mind. With batteries tucked into the underbody, the vans offer unrestricted cargo space. Both come standard with the MBUX multimedia system, which supports the integration of automatic charging stops and Mercedes’ public charging network via navigation.
Safety and comfort got upgrades, too. New driver assistance features come standard, and the Amazon vans are customized with shelves and a sliding door between the cabin and cargo area for easy parcel access.
The eVito vans, which were built at Mercedes’ plant in Vitoria, Spain, are ideal for last-mile urban deliveries. They come in 60 kWh or 90 kWh battery options, with peak motor outputs of either 85 kW or 150 kW, and can travel up to 480 km (298 miles) on a full charge.
Meanwhile, the eSprinter is the all-rounder for range and loading volume. Built in Düsseldorf, it comes in two lengths and three battery sizes, with a range of up to 484 km (300 miles). It boasts up to 14 cubic meters of cargo space and can handle a gross weight of up to 4.25 tonnes.
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