Colette Honorable, a Democrat, was confirmed with bipartisan support as Chairman of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, the regulator of interstate transmission of electricity, oil and natural gas. Honorable is currently the chair of the Arkansas Public Service Commission and just finished a term as president of the National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners. 

Jon Carson joined SolarCity as director of the company's Solar Ambassador program. Carson was previously the executive director of Organizing for Action, a nonprofit organizing effort that backs Obama administration policy.

Former Massachusetts Undersecretary for Energy Mark Sylvia is joining BlueWave Capital, a "for-profit, mission-driven" solar power project developer, as managing director. Sylvia has been with the Patrick administration since 2009. BlueWave claims to be developing more than 500 megawatts in power projects around the world.

The board of directors of Ohio-headquartered, investor-owned energy firm FirstEnergy selected Charles Jones as the successor to CEO Tony Alexander, who will continue to serve as executive chairman. Jones was EVP and president of FirstEnergy Utilities.

Onyx Renewable Partners, a portfolio company of global investment firm Blackstone, develops, finances, builds and operates large-scale solar and wind projects. The company named Daniel De Boer as its new SVP of finance. De Boer was most recently with D.E. Shaw & Co.’s Private Equity Group and Renewable Investments group. Onyx also recently announced the appointment of Leanne Bell as CFO. Prior to joining Onyx, Bell served as CFO and COO at Synergy Renewables, a global power development firm. Bell also led GE's Energy Financial Services Power Team as managing director.

Kurion, a VC-funded startup that is tackling nuclear and hazardous waste management, promoted David Brockman to executive VP of North American Operations. Brockman joined Kurion as deputy COO in 2013, and previously served as CEO at S.A. Technology and as Chief Energy Advisor at MRI Global. In a prior role at the DOE, Brockman oversaw a $12.3 billion vitrification and waste treatment plant project. Before that, Brockman oversaw the DOE's Richland Operations Office at the Hanford Site in Washington state. Kurion was incubated by Lux Capital with investment from Firelake Capital and Jeff Samberg's Acadia Woods Partners.

Enlighted, with VC funding from Draper Nexus Ventures, KPCB, RockPort Capital, DFJ and Intel Capital, looks to equip buildings with its digital sensor and analytics platform and lighting network-as-a-service. The company named Deron Miller as executive VP of North American sales and Mark Golan as president of products and applications. Miller was most recently MicroStrategy’s senior VP of Americas sales. Golan joins from Adura Technologies. Prior to Adura, Golan was GM for Johnson Controls Global WorkPlace Solutions in the Americas.    

Bidgely, an energy analytics and SaaS startup that helps utilities keep customers and lets customers take action to save energy, named John Lin as VP of sales. Lin joins Bidgely from a sales role at Enlighted. Prior to Enlighted, Lin led utility sales for Control4’s energy business.   

Energy storage and SaaS provider Sunverge added Robin Shaffer as its senior director of product marketing. He was most recently VP of sales at fuel cell firm ClearEdge Power.  

Tesla China President Veronica Wu, responsible for operational command in a prime EV market, is leaving the firm just nine months after her hire from Apple, according to the electric-vehicle maker in a report in Bloomberg. Her replacement, Tom Zhu, joined the firm in April and now heads Tesla’s charging network in China. The carmaker began shipping its Model S electric sedans to China earlier this year.   

Stem added Randy Palombi as VP of sales. Prior to joining Stem, Palombi was VP in Constellation’s Load Response group. Previously, Randy served in senior sales positions at CPower, APX, and Sempra Utilities.