With Japanese companies keen to learn from their counterparts in deregulated energy markets such as the UK, the Japan Energy Challenge provided the ideal forum for exchanging ideas. Andy Colthorpe reports.
Ireland’s DS3 is a “really interesting market” but there is a lack of clarity of what the enduring arrangements for procuring DS3 look like, says Statkraft Market’s head of UK energy storage, Nick Heyward.
It has always been anticipated that by the early 2020s, the feed-in tariff would have tapered away in Japan’s booming solar market. Andy Colthorpe speaks with analyst Izumi Kaizuka at RTS Corporation to learn more about what the future holds for post-subsidy solar in Japan.
Marek Kubik, market director at Fluence, talks to Energy-Storage.news about the company’s work on the 11MW Kilathmoy battery storage project, delivered in tandem with wind giant Statkraft and Ireland’s grid operator EirGrid.
Investors are queuing “all the way down the street” but many require the first projects to be built before committing, Gridserve’s chief investment officer Mark Henderson has said.
Despite making huge strides forward, the energy storage industry’s work in helping stakeholders across the value chain understand the technologies and the roles they can play in a renewable energy future is far from done. Andy Colthorpe speaks with Energy Storage Association chief executive, Kelly Speakes-Backman, at the forefront of the industry’s push into unchartered regulatory, policy and public affairs matters.
Pivot Power is keeping an eye on solutions other than lithium-ion, but chief executive Matt Allen stressed the need to focus on the now and deploy chemistries that are “ready and investable”.
Commercial energy storage ‘pioneer’ Stem Inc and NEC have announced a master supply agreement and wide-ranging partnership that will see the latter’s equipment and solutions used in solar-plus-storage projects in Stem’s pipeline.
The Nobel Foundation recognised not only the role of lightweight, portable battery technology for mobile phones, laptops and latterly electric vehicles, but also that it “can also store significant amounts of energy from solar and wind power, making possible a fossil fuel-free society”.
A new white paper from Wärtsilä Energy shows that being able to integrate and then optimise all of these different assets is the key to ensuring that your project – and your investment – is going to provide the maximum benefit, longest possible lifetime in the field – and the best business case. Risto Paldanius, Director of Business Development, Energy Storage and Integration at Wärtsilä told us a bit more about what optimization really means in today’s energy market.
