Feature
Editor's blog
2018: Energy-Storage.news Editor’s Vlog of the Year
In another eventful and exciting year, Energy-Storage.news has been able to capture conversations and interviews with leading industry figures.
Articles tagged with: Analysis
Feature
Editor's blog
Virtual reality: VPPs in a break with tradition
Cloud-aggregated virtual power plants using residential or C&I battery storage as part of a smart energy management system can benefit the grid, integrate renewables and EVs and hopefully add a powerful long-term value proposition for home storage. Andy Colthorpe and David Pratt report on how some of the UK’s first VPP projects are proving the concept.
Energy storage procurement targets could work for Nevada, PUCN-commissioned study says
Nevada could cost-effectively deploy between 750MW and 1,000MW of energy storage by 2030, according to an economic study commissioned by the state’s rulemakers to investigate the potential for the technology.
Residential overtakes quarterly utility deployment in US for the first time
The US deployed 42% megawatts more energy storage in the second quarter of this year than in the first, with residential installations overtaking utility deployments for the first time.
US has gone past 1GWh of installed battery capacity, with help from utilities
US utilities deployed more than 520MWh of energy storage on their networks in 2017, bringing the country’s cumulative installed capacity of grid-connected energy storage systems to over 1GWh, trade organisation Smart Electric Power Alliance (SEPA) has found.
Feature
Editor's blog
Taking smart to the edges of the world - Part 2
Islands around the world provide ideal conditions for trialling new approaches to energy provision. David Pratt reports on how cutting-edge renewable energy, storage and smart grid technologies are being rolled out to geographically isolated communities. Part 2 of this feature article continues with a look at how some of these projects could provide real-time lessons for the global clean energy transition.
Mercom: Behind-the-meter providers among top five VC fund recipients in H1 2018
VC funding for battery energy storage companies in the first half of this year has already exceeded 2016’s total and looks on the way to bettering 2017, with US$539 million raised across 29 deals.
Navigant: Energy storage PCS becoming a ‘crowded market’
The market for power conversion systems (PCS) used in energy storage is becoming “increasingly crowded” with competitors, while the diverse field of players will contribute to “rapid technological innovations and price reductions”, Navigant Research has said.
Feature
Interviews
Europe in focus: behind-the-meter market comes alive
In the second part of our interview with Valts Grintals, analyst at Delta-ee we discuss why behind-the-meter energy storage, including commercial and industrial (C&I) and residential installations, contributed so much to the market’s recent success.
Commercial and industrial is ‘most exciting’ part of Europe’s energy storage market
Commercial and industrial (C&I) energy storage in Europe, described by one analyst as “beginning to take off”, is the “most exciting” segment of the market at the moment, according to BYD’s global service partner.
Lead acid ‘toxic legacy in Africa’ disputed by Kenyan industry veteran
A veteran of Kenya’s renewable energy industry has argued strongly in favour of lead acid batteries over lithium-ion, in response to a recent Energy-Storage.news article on off-grid solar PV in Africa.
Feature
Analysis
Long time coming: Part 1
First developed by NASA, flow batteries are a potential answer to storing solar – and wind – for eight to 10 hours, far beyond what is commonly achieved today with lithium-ion. In the first of a two-part special report, Andy Colthorpe learns what the flow battery industry faces in the fight for commercialisation.
GTM: US residential storage market reached 35.8MWh in Q1 2018
The residential energy storage market in the US has just enjoyed one of its biggest growth spurts so far, although action is mostly centred in specific states with supportive policies and conditions.
Smart islands, flow batteries and Internet of Energy: your free copy of PV Tech Power
Volume 15 of PV Tech Power, from our publisher Solar Media, has just hit the virtual shelves - and the quarterly technical journal is free to download from the PV Tech site.
Feature
Analysis
The case for C&I storage investigated
The commercial and industrial segment is one of the most promising sub-sectors of the energy storage space. Julian Jansen of IHS Markit describes recent efforts to model the US C&I storage landscape and what it reveals about this dynamic emerging market. As told to Andy Colthorpe.
GTM: Global energy storage market could reach 8.6GW / 21.6GWh by 2022
The US is expected to remain the world’s biggest market for energy storage until 2022, with China its closest rival, GTM Research has said.
Feature
Editor's blog
Forget Brexit: Europe and Britain can unite in energy storage and climate change goals
Already this year we’ve been able to learn directly about the energy storage market in Europe from the Energy Storage Summit in London at the end of February and Energy Storage Europe in Dusseldorf, which just took place last week. Andy Colthorpe summarises what he's seen and heard.
GTM: US could smash 1GWh deployment in 2018
While research published this week demonstrates that the US as a whole is embracing energy storage technology, with regulator FERC's recent wholesale market ruling likely to have a "significant impact", the picture varies greatly when looking from state-to-state, an analyst has said.
GTM: Front-of-meter cost declines will slow as industry grows 6x over by 2022
While energy storage system price declines have slowed down in recent times in the US, standardisation of design and engineering will be among the key drivers in bringing down balance-of-system hardware and EPC costs.
LG Chem, Samsung SDI at top of Navigant’s grid-scale Li-ion leaderboard
A new study from Navigant Research into the strategy and execution of various lithium-ion battery providers in the utility-scale energy storage industry identified Korean companies LG Chem and Samsung SDI as “leaders” of a rapidly-growing sector.
UK battery storage to enjoy ‘explosive growth’ to 2022
Over 9,000MWh of battery energy storage could be deployed in Britain over the next five years as the sector enjoys a trend towards “explosive growth”, a market analyst has said.
Feature
Guest blog
From followers to leaders: The changing face of Europe’s energy storage market
The European electricity storage market has seen an impressive growth over the past two years. Whereas in 2015 some 300MWh of battery storage capacity was newly installed, just two years later in 2017, more than 700MWh was added. Delta-ee's Valts Grintals gives you some highlights and pinpoints some recent trends across the continent.
Feature
Energy-Storage.News 2017: Best of the guest blogs, Part 2.
The second part of our round-up of the best guest blogs of the year covers as wide a range of topics as yesterday's list, from a mixture of experts and industry stakeholders.
Feature
Guest blog
Energy-Storage.News 2017: Best of the guest blogs, Part 1.
Since the launch of the site almost four years ago, Energy-Storage.News (and PV Tech Storage as it was previously known), has consistently brought you high-quality blogs from both guest contributors and our team of journalists and experts here at Solar Media. Here's just a selection of some of the best guest blogs we ran from January to June, 2017:
Analysis
How important is ‘brand power’ in the world of energy storage?
In a world where energy storage will play an increasingly important role – in balancing renewables, reinforcing the network, and reducing energy costs – how important will ‘brand’ be?
UK’s energy storage market could have ‘best scale-up’ potential
Britain could be the best “scale-up” market in the world when it comes to deploying energy storage batteries, leaning on years of experience in solar PV, the chief of one manufacturer has said.
Flow batteries leading the way in lithium-free niches
While lithium-ion is rapidly racing ahead to become the “de facto grid storage solution” and is the most popular technology choice by far, vendors of other types of batteries are also targeting the market, with varying degrees of success.
Analysis
Utility-scale pipeline hints at a diverse future for UK energy storage
In the past month we have heard a lot about the future of storage in the UK. From plans by the government and regulator to enable greater flexibility across electricity networks to changes to technical rules governing the market, there's been a sense that a great deal is changing. Analyst Lauren Cook of Solar Media's in-house market research team takes a look at the utility-scale pipeline figures behind the headlines.
Analysis
The 5 ingredients for success in the future stationary energy storage market
Florian Mayr, partner at Apricum - The Cleantech Advisory, reflects on knowledge gained in energy storage's rapidly growing markets and offers his five key ingredients for success.
IHS: Global utility-side-of-meter pipeline reached 3.4GW in first quarter of this year
The world pipeline for energy storage on the utility side of the meter has doubled in the past year, reaching 3.4GW, according to new research by I.H.S.