A team at Harvard is pursuing a metal-free battery chemistry based on organic molecules called Quinones. The technology potentially offers an abundant and safe material to use for scaling up flow batteries, but according to the energy storage team at Lux Research in Boston, there are significant limitations based on project cost.

The emerging availability of storage and smart-grid technologies allows communities to meet their energy demands locally. As Andrew Jones of S&C Electric writes, community-owned micro-grids will become an increasingly important element of the future energy system.

Earlier this year New York governor Andrew Cuomo unveiled plans for an “energy modernisation initiative that will fundamentally transform the way electricity is distributed and used in New York State”. This will include the creation of a leading energy storage marketplace, argues Bill Radvak, chief executive officer of American Vanadium, whose company recently installed a vanadium flow battery storage system for New York’s Metropolitan Transport Authority in Manhattan.

SolarCity, one of the largest solar installers and leasing companies in the US, has moved into providing energy storage via pilot programmes for residential and commercial customers in key regional markets including California. Will Craven, director of public affairs and spokesman for SolarCity, discusses the regulatory situation facing the company and others in the rapidly growing area of energy storage-plus-solar.

Energy storage has been touted as the enabler of high levels of intermittent renewables in the electricity system – the silver bullet or Holy Grail for solar and wind. A key attribute for the technology’s deployment will be scalability, writes Melissa Lott.

PV Tech Storage interviewed Bill Radvak of American Vanadium, whose company has a plan to scale up flow batteries for renewable energy integration, using its own vanadium deposits.

In a two-part video interview with PV Tech Storage, Wolfram Walter, founder of battery manufacturer ASD Sonnenspeicher, said electricity storage suffered from an image problem. He describes to Andy Colthorpe how his company is marrying cutting-edge technology with cool design to appeal to a broader market.

The battle of the chemistries has long been alluded to in the energy storage space, and nowhere with greater frequency than with reference to battery chemistries.

This year’s Intersolar Europe event in Munich will have an area dedicated energy storage. As the event gets underway, Andy Colthorpe spoke to Bryan Ekus of the International Battery and Energy Storage Alliance to get his views on an increasingly important technology.

Hawaii is inviting proposals for up to 200MW of storage in the face of regulatory demands and unprecedented distributed generation challenges. As Dean Frankel writes, the process could offer some answers to the conundrum of integrating higher volumes of renewable energy generation.