Legislation recently introduced in California to cut red tape and reduce permitting times for energy storage systems and currently awaiting the state Governor’s rubber stamp could also halve the costs associated with paperwork, commercial system provider Stem has said.

While lithium-ion is rapidly racing ahead to become the “de facto grid storage solution” and is the most popular technology choice by far, vendors of other types of batteries are also targeting the market, with varying degrees of success.

With grid-connected energy storage a relatively new technology, stakeholders are yet to fully understand many of the risks and business opportunities it presents, DNV GL’s Dr Martijn Huibers has said.

TerraE Holding, a collaborative initiative to establish large-scale production line manufacturing of lithium-ion cells at a European ‘Gigafactory’, has signed a raw materials deal for anode materials with Australia’s Magnis Resources.

Jigar Shah has said that the addition of backup power helped persuade a California school district to add energy storage as well as going solar and that adding batteries can help “decision makers” see the true value of PV.

General Electric (GE) is developing Mexico’s first ever grid-scale energy storage projects to aid with the integration of wind and solar into electricity networks.

The value of a front-of-meter battery energy storage system in California could be doubled or even trebled, by adding more than one revenue stream to the project, a new report says.

France-headquartered mega-utility EDF has accepted delivery and installation of a flywheel energy storage system manufactured by Germany’s Stornetic, at EDF’s “full testing playground” south of Paris.

Australia’s biggest utility AGL, which has committed to phasing out coal by 2050, has said it is likely to replace the capacity provided by one ageing power station with batteries, peaking plants, demand response and pumped hydro.

Heating and cooling uses more than half of Europe’s energy, but the potential “immense value” of thermal energy storage has barely been explored, the head of an energy storage trade group has said.