As we move into a new decade, the question is whether the burgeoning US energy storage industry will be able to maintain its current path of rapid growth. All signs suggest that it will, argues Ricardo F. Rodriguez of Navigant Research.

Action must be taken to build up domestic battery manufacturing capacity in the U.S. to meet demand for industrial-scale energy storage systems, argues Lindsay Gorrill, CEO of KORE Power.

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.

Kelly Speakes-Backman, CEO of the Energy Storage Association and 2019 Cleanie Awardee for Woman of the Year, says Federal issues remain important, but we shouldn’t ignore the actions on the ground across the US.

EU decision-makers have recognised the key role energy storage can play, integrating it into the EU’s Clean Energy Package (CEP) in some critically important ways. Valeska Gottke at BVES looks at how Germany’s industry is working towards these same goals.

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”.

As energy storage becomes an increasingly integral part of a renewables-based system, interest in and discussion around non-lithium (and non-pumped hydro) technologies increases. A team of experts from CENELEST, a joint research venture between the Fraunhofer Institute for Chemical Technologies and the University of New South Wales take a deep dive into redox flow batteries.

Storelectric CTO Mark Howitt puts forward the case for his company’s ‘innovative’ adiabatic compressed air energy storage, which he claims is a long duration technology complementary to other existing and advanced tech such as batteries.

While lithium-ion batteries get most of the headlines, long-duration solutions of various types are gaining ground. Alice Grundy and Andy Colthorpe profile some of the established and emerging concepts in this increasingly important field.