EOS Energy Storage has placed an order totalling more than 1MW from NASDAQ-listed power converter specialist Ideal Power, while both companies have launched new products since the start of the year.

Another large-scale project to test the grid-stabilising capabilities of battery-based energy storage systems will be launched at a solar farm in England, led by the National Grid, which is responsible for the UK’s electrical transmission network infrastructure.

Two providers of large-scale battery systems for energy storage have announced expansion plans this month, with Vizn Energy opening new headquarters in Texas, and Younicos forming three separate new business units to address “rapid growth” in the market.

For decades Australia has been at the forefront in deploying renewable energy, coupled with energy storage solutions, in off grid and fringe of grid areas across remote Australia.  Many communities have transitioned away from polluting and expensive diesel generators and now use reliable and sustainable renewable energy and energy storage solutions.  But it is only now that the full impact of lower energy storage costs are becoming clear, writes John Grimes of the Australian Energy Storage Council.

The head of a company selected by the UK government to deploy residential energy storage under a pilot scheme believes that his network of installers could deploy 10,000 units, equivalent to 30MWh of storage per month.

The UK’s minister for energy has said that her government is not planning any framework of incentives for energy storage, but said nonetheless that public funds can help “bridge the gap” between ideas and commercialisation.

Mining giant Glencore has taken delivery of a lithium-ion energy storage system at a nickel mining complex in Canada, to be used to lower diesel costs and integrate power from wind turbines.

E.ON, the German utility giant with 61GW of generation assets, has announced plans to split its business in two. The company will stake its future on renewables in a major restructuring, spinning off its conventional power generation business, in part as a response to the growth in distributed generation. Cosmin Laslau of Lux Research digs deeper.

This year will be the one when “PV energy storage systems (PVESS) make an enormous leap toward wide-scale adoption”, according to research firm IHS.

Investment bank Citigroup is predicting a 240GW global battery storage market worth US$400 billion by 2030 as increased deployment creates a “virtuous circle” of falling costs.