Fuel cells for distributed generation will be developed through 13 new projects that have been announced by Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E), the US government agency responsible for promoting funding and RnD into advanced energy technologies.

Sunverge, a California-based provider of distributed energy storage and control systems, has closed a US$15 million funding round that it said would support its expansion.

Battery maker Trojan claims its new proprietary ‘Smart Carbon’ technology can improve the cycle life of lead acid batteries by as much as 15%, through effective management of the cell in a partial state of charge.

Certification for safety and other technical standards must become uniform in the market for residential energy storage systems which can combine with PV systems, according to an expert at technological research institute Fraunhofer ISE.

The deployment of solar storage units in German is set to boom over the next few years in what has been hailed a “quiet revolution” for the PV industry.

The annual energy capacity of batteries used in utility-scale applications will be seen to increase by a factor of more than 100 between now and 2023, according to a new report published by US analysis firm Navigant Research.

Barclays has voiced the opinion that solar PV-generated energy coupled with storage presents a long term disruptive risk to electric utilities in the US, as it was reported the bank’s investment arm had downgraded the entire electric sector of the US high grade corporate bond market.

Some home energy storage systems, such as those increasingly used with PV, have potential safety flaws that could lead to an increased risk of fire, according to a study by German researchers.

Electricity storage could be the “glue” that holds electricity networks together in the near future, according to UK politician Alan Whitehead MP, speaking at a parliamentary reception held to launch a new report published by the Electricity Storage Network.