While energy storage, like the electrification of transport, is often discussed as the ‘Next Big Thing’ for first world economies, this emerging technology is starting to play an important role in developing nations too.

Unlike the solar PV sector where there’s often an attitude of “let’s sell the project first and worry about O&M later,” storage projects must have services built in to the thinking and financial process from the beginning. With storage, a strong O&M plan and team become part and parcel of making and closing a strong productive deal, NEXTracker’s Marty Rogers argues.

With Brexit day less than a month away and still no certainty around what the final deal will look like, the time is now for the energy storage sector to prepare for every eventuality so it can play to its increasing strengths, writes Stephen Irish, co-founder of Hyperdrive Innovation.

Today, energy storage projects often fail to deliver value because of economic miscalculations. These computational issues, however, can now be mitigated by applying software, analytics and machine learning, write Enrico Ladendorf and Bryce Evans of Pason Power.

We asked Dr Rahul Walawalkar, executive director of the India Energy Storage Alliance, three simple questions to illuminate what was achieved in 2018 and what held the market back, if anything. We also look ahead to this year and what we might expect to see going forward.

Global shares of renewable energy are increasing, while at the same time data centres become an ever-more important part of our daily lives. Emiliano Cevenini of Vertiv looks at some ways in which renewable energy can combine with UPS and energy storage systems at data centres to offer new possibilities for energy and environmental controls.

Andres Cortes and Ben Kaun of the Electric Power Research Institute discuss some of their recent work looking into the issues of the attributes and operations of co-locating energy storage with renewables

Power outages pose great risks for corporate bottom lines and many have already suffered the economic brunt of unforeseen weather and grid events in 2018. Battery energy storage can be a versatile actor in networks, bringing resiliency as well as energy efficiency and economic benefits, writes Lisa Laughner, CEO of Go Electric.

Tim Humpage, head of EPC at British Solar Renewables, discusses some of the key ‘ingredients’ to his company’s work on the 49.9MW Pelham battery, completed on behalf of Statera Energy late last year.

Halfway through 2018 and large-scale battery storage in the UK has reached over 450MW installed capacity, with around 250MW being completed this year alone. This is made up of projects bigger than 1MW, including larger behind the meter projects that have begun to emerge.