Plans by Italy’s grid operator to allow for the interconnection of energy storage to the network have resulted in the country’s first grid-connected solar-smoothing storage facility being inaugurated.

Electronics and design giant Apple is setting its sights on a 2019 launch for its own range of electric vehicles (EVs), according to a report in the Wall Street Journal.

Europe’s largest energy storage battery project could conceivably also be its best looking, as these pictures show. The two companies behind the project, which saw a large-scale energy storage system deployed in the small German village of Feldheim, also decided to call on professional street artists and invited schoolchildren to get involved with designing the outside of the system’s enclosure.

A small municipal utility will be the recipient of what is thought to be one of the first US projects to try out a combination of revenue streams from a storage battery linked to a solar farm.

Battery-based energy storage integration and development company Younicos has launched a power converter unit and a standalone, easily deployable storage solution, with the company describing the move into hardware as a “next logical step”.

Start-ups and established players in energy storage alike will compete for attention at this week’s Solar Power International, which opens today in Anaheim, California.

News in brief: Germany’s tiny renewable energy village gets biggest battery; Tesla-backers invest in Kazakh-bound Primus Power and industry partners match US$2 million grant for California distributed resources trial.

A solar farm connected to a huge battery will be built on the Hawaiian island of Kauai to use solar in the evenings to meet peak demand, under a 20-year contract between SolarCity and an electric utility co-operative.

After dropping a series of strong hints – including those given in interviews with PV Tech Storage – Enphase has confirmed that its AC battery will be launched in Australia first.

Adobe is among the participants earning revenues from what is claimed to be an energy storage industry first – a trial rewarding California storage system users for conferring benefits to the grid.