Geothermal power and renewable energy developer Ormat Technologies has signalled its intent to join demand response and energy storage markets with the purchase of Viridity Energy.

The north-eastern US state of Massachusetts will introduce a procurement target for energy storage resources, with the state’s department of energy resources (DOER) collecting views from stakeholders.

Every year sees energy storage build on the success of the preceding one, it seems, and this year we were able to carry insights and opinions from some of the best placed participants and observers. Here’s our picks for the content most representative of the year it’s been, as well as the 10 most read news stories on the site.

German utility SWW Wunsiedel has ordered a large-scale battery storage system from engineering and technology giant Siemens, which will participate in weekly tenders to help balance the local grid.

Turnkey energy storage system provider Demand Energy has commissioned a solar-plus-storage microgrid in Costa Rica at a medical manufacturing facility.

Property and infrastructure group Lendlease has signed a joint venture agreement (JVA) to deliver solar, battery storage and microgrid projects across Australia with Carnegie Clean Energy.

Software for energy storage systems will be a mixture of in-house solutions by integrator/ developers and third-party providers, in an industry segment set for a steep rise in value, according to one expert.

China’s deployment of energy storage looks set to continue an upward trajectory, with almost 600MW in the pipeline as of the third quarter this year.

Four makers of lithium-ion batteries have been sanctioned by the European Commission for anti-competitive practises, with three incurring fines totalling €166 million (US$176 million) after colluding to “avoid aggressive competition”.

An Arizona scheme to study the use of energy storage and smart inverters in integrating solar to the grid has contracted the deployment of 4MW of AES Energy Storage’s lithium battery systems.