Tamara Montague was promoted to VP of sales at JA Solar USA.

A survey released by the Advanced Energy Economy Institute finds that the advanced energy industry in California provides 431,800 jobs, making it a larger employer in California than the "motion picture, television, and radio industries; mining and quarrying; semiconductors; and aerospace." The building, homes and business efficiency business employs more than 300,000 Californians according to the survey results, which can be found here.

Joseph Hezir was confirmed by the Senate as the Department of Energy’s CFO. Prior to joining the DOE, Hezir was the executive director of The Future of Solar Energy Study at MIT's Energy Initiative. Hezir has also held positions at the Office of Management and Budget, Exxon Research and Engineering, and the EPA. Franklin Orr was confirmed as the Under Secretary for Science and Energy at the DOE. As Under Secretary, Orr will administer the DOE’s science research programs, including most of the national labs. Orr has been a long-time member of the faculty at Stanford University. In 2009, he helped create the Stanford Precourt Institute for Energy.

Keith O’Neal joined Nexant as head of its reliability, compliance and security consulting business. Previously, O'Neal worked at the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, where he led the development of FERC’s reliability standards. Nexant is a software and services firm that helps utilities build smart grid and demand management projects. 

Zongwei Li has resigned from his position as executive director of Yingli's board of directors. Li joined Yingli as CFO in 2006, and currently serves as CSO. Yiyu Wang, the current CFO, will replace Li on the board.

Amyris, a renewable chemicals and fuels firm, named Raffi Asadorian as CFO. Interim CFO Paulo Diniz will move to a new role as chairman of Amyris Brasil. Prior to joining Amyris, Asadorian was the CFO at Unilabs, a medical diagnostics firm. 

Jerry Stalun joined Sol Systems, a solar energy finance and investment firm, as its senior director of investments. Previously, he led investment activities in the power sector as managing director for EIG Global Energy Partners and as head of asset-based investments, Americas for Arcapita, a private equity firm in energy and infrastructure. Stalun also served as senior VP of GE Energy Financial Services, as well as managing director of Duke Capital Partners. Sol Systems has financed 171 megawatts of distributed PV projects, with more than $550 million in assets under management.    

Project developer 8minutenergy joined the board of the Solar Energy Industries Association, the U.S. solar energy industry national trade association. Southern California Edison recently signed contracts for 8minutenergy to develop a total of 450 megawatts over three solar projects.   

AFC Energy, a fuel cell aspirant with an alkaline fuel cell technology, named Adam Bond as its chief executive. Bond was most recently president of European operations at Linc Energy, a firm focused on underground coal gasification. AFC Energy's largest equity holder is Russian billionaire mogul Roman Abramovich, according to a release. AFC is a publicly traded microcap firm with little revenue and continued losses. Investing in fuel cells provides a path for Abramovich to become a multimillionaire.

Milton Howard is leaving Duke Energy, where he was a wind and solar development executive, to join NRG Petra Nova in Houston, Texas in a development role. Howard remarks that Petra Nova "is a cool new venture that will capture CO2 emissions from coal flue stacks, compress the CO2 and pipe it for injection into tertiary recovery oil fields." He adds, "With partners, we will take ownership in U.S. tertiary oil fields." The firm is constructing a $1 billion carbon capture enhanced-oil recovery project near Houston.

Lucian Ion is now head of international smart grid strategy at Siemens. Ion was formerly VP of international development strategy at Comverge and director of smart grid strategy at GE.