Arno Harris joined the board of directors of Azure Power, an Indian solar power firm. Harris was the founder and CEO of Recurrent Energy, a utility-scale solar project developer acquired by Sharp and then by Canadian Solar.  

Azure has raised hundreds of millions in equity and debt from Foundation Capital, Helion Ventures, IFC (the World Bank's investment firm), and German development bank DEG. Diane Farrell, president of the U.S.-India Business Council, is board director. Foundation's Bill Elmore is on the board, as is Robert Kelly, former CFO at SolarCity. 

According to CEO Inderpreet Wadhwa, as reported by IBN, the company is "not in the business of selling solar power plants; we only sell power.”

As of earlier this year, Azure operated 17 utility-scale projects and several commercial rooftop projects with a total rated capacity of 242 megawatts across 13 Indian states. Almost all of the PPAs are 25-year contracts. Eleven projects with a total capacity of 244 megawatts are in construction. Last year, Azure commissioned its largest solar power plant and the largest under India's National Solar Mission, a 100-megawatt PV installation at Jodhpur in Rajasthan.

The company had 2015 fiscal year revenue of $17.6 million with a net loss of $17.1 million. 2014 fiscal year revenue was $13 million with a loss of $11.4 million. 

Renewable Power Direct, a national green power marketer, named Eric Alam as CEO. Alam was formerly executive VP of sales at Viridity Energy, an energy management software firm. RPD also announced a new investment round led by T. Wayne Gatlin, co-founder of Santanna Energy Services, a retail energy marketer. RPD is a FERC-authorized wholesale power marketer focused on providing directly sourced renewable electricity to Fortune 1000 C&I customers.     

Kateeva, a startup led by Alain Harrus, a former cleantech investor at Crosslink Capital, uses inkjet technology to build flexible, organic LED-based flat-panel displays. The startup just raised $88 million in new funding to expand production, bringing its funding total to $200 million. Investors include China's BOE and Cybernaut Venture, along with existing investors Sigma Partners, Spark Capital, Madrone Capital, DBL Partners, New Science Ventures and Veeco Instruments.

Daniel Bakholdin is now CTO of Amber Kinetics, responsible for commercializing the company's 4-hour discharge duration steel flywheel technology. Bakholdin co-founded Pentadyne Power, a flywheel developer, and served as director of Hyperloop Transportation Technologies’ magnetic propulsion and levitation development laboratory. 

Logan Granger, previously with 8minutenergy Renewables, is now VP of engineering and technical operations at NRG Energy.    

Doug Lewin is now VP of regulatory affairs and market development at CLEAResult, the country's biggest efficiency program administrator.

Blue Pillar, provider of a "self-configurable energy network-of-things platform that connects and controls distributed energy assets," added Mark Williams as VP of sales. Previously, Williams was VP of North American sales at ThingWorx.

ViZn Energy, a zinc hybrid flow battery manufacturer, added Kent Williams (former CEO of Vista Asset Management and VIA Motors) to its board of directors, and added Joshua Bar-Lev (former VP of regulatory affairs at BrightSource Energy) to its advisory board.

Alex Panchula is now senior manager of service engineering and fleet analytics at Tesla Motors. He was most recently senior director of prediction and performance at First Solar.

Exergonix just acquired Coda Energy, a twice-bankrupt manufacturer of energy storage systems. Peter Nortman, Coda’s founder and CTO, will join Exergonix to help transfer its existing SGIP programs.  

Micah Kotch is moving from his post at NYSERDA as director of NY Prize to serve as managing director for UrbanX, an initiative looking to make cities "more efficient and livable." In the interim, John Saintcross, assistant director of NY Prize, will lead the program, which has funded 83 community microgrid feasibility studies.

GTM Research's Ravi Manghani was promoted to director of energy storage research.

From recent jobs columns:

First Solar named CFO Mark Widmar as its new CEO, replacing James Hughes. A recent GTM Squared article detailed First Solar's move to a new medium-voltage DC solar power plant architecture.

Ahmad Chatila is still CEO of bankrupt SunEdison. 

Peter Hochholdinger, with Audi for 22 years, is joining Tesla as VP of vehicle production -- responsible for Model S and Model X production, as well as the design of a manufacturing program for the Model 3.