News in brief: Korea’s main utility and Samsung SDI have overseas markets in their sights, Leclanché subsidiary targets US and Canada, UK lead acid maker moves to Li-Ion with new crowdfund drive.

The trial of a 6MW/10MWh ‘Big Battery’ has proven energy storage can help Britain’s electricity network, but the next crucial phase is to assess the business case, the grid operator which commissioned it has said.

Tesla is predicting it could sell more stationary storage to SolarCity during 2016 than was deployed in the entire behind-the-meter segment of the US market last year, according to analysis by GTM Research.

The UK’s “greenest electricity supplier” will launch trial units of its own residential energy storage system this year, with the potential to reignite an ongoing and acrimonious rivalry with Tesla.

Utility-scale solar projects in a region of Japan affected by fears of grid capacity constraints have been supplied with energy storage, aimed at mitigating the potential effects of output curtailment.

While the effectiveness of flow batteries in islanded situations is quickly being recognised, on the grid, the cost of providing that storage is still seen as something of an inhibitor to uptake. Andy Colthorpe spoke with the RedT CEO, Scott McGregor, to get his views on how flow batteries can thrive – and why lithium-ion is not the enemy.

Energy storage and interconnection are complementary technologies, as a means of adding flexibility and keeping costs down in electricity grids, an expert from Fraunhofer ISE has said.

Moves by the US’ Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) to assess electricity storage’s potential role in wholesale markets and in maintaining a low-cost, reliable network have been welcomed by the Washington-headquartered Energy Storage Association.

Roundup: A third of US PV installers offer storage and 26% more could join them this year, China’s BYD signs up with UAE’s Masdar, Sunvault and Aboriginal Power’s ‘self-sustaining’ community project.

Unsubsidised, commercial solar-plus-storage projects of the type being executed in Puerto Rico could demonstrate how to overcome many of the challenges imminent for the world’s PV markets, according to one company with experience in the field.