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Perhaps the biggest indicator of the recognition of behind-the-meter storage so far this year has been the acquisition of Sonnen by oil major Shell. CEO Christoph Ostermann spoke to Andy Colthorpe about why home storage uptake could be on a worldwide series of inflection points.
Tesla will acquire Maxwell Technologies, it was announced this week, although it is not clear yet which of Maxwell’s product lines, including ultracapacitors, are of most interest to the Silicon Valley automaker and new energy company.
News in brief from around the world in energy storage.
Johnson Controls has sold off its power business, including its design and production of automotive batteries, to focus on management solutions for buildings and HVAC systems for industrial customers.
An agreement to buy 75% of Korean battery manufacturer Kokam gives SolarEdge a level of vertical integration that could make the PV company a ‘one-stop-shop’ for customers, while SolarEdge could diversify into areas outside solar energy.
Developer and EPC firm Conergy Asia has been acquired by the Green Investment Group (GIG).
Swiss vertically-integrated battery and energy storage system and equipment maker Leclanché has followed sonnen in netting a significant amount of investment to go into the second half of 2018, securing CHF75 million (US$76 million) from its main existing investor.
Shell has continued to scale-up its interest in distributed energy by participating in a €60 million (US$70.23 million) investment round by German battery storage firm sonnen.
German energy giants E.On and RWE have reached an agreement on a major exchange of business activities, promising a significant shake-up of the duo’s energy interests.
News in brief from around the world of energy storage.
France-headquartered multinational utility ENGIE has followed up acquisitions in smart energy by incorporating three companies including commercial energy storage provider Green Charge into its parent brand, with the explicit aim of furthering its position in North American markets.
Australian large-scale renewables investor Lyon Group has confirmed it is selling three projects under development, totalling 800MWh of energy storage and 545MW of PV generation capacity, in Queensland, Victoria and South Australia.
Calmac, a provider of ice-creating thermal energy storage systems – and ice rinks – has been bought out by a subsidiary of major US manufacturer Ingersoll Rand.
The amount of energy storage investment that came from VC (venture capital) funding more than doubled in the first half of 2017 compared to last year, a new report has found.
Nasdaq Helsinki-listed power company Wärtsilä’s acquisition of software specialist, system integrator and turnkey energy storage system provider Greensmith has been completed.
Energy storage provider and system integrator Younicos has been bought out by Aggreko, a power generation equipment and energy controls supplier.
Finnish power equipment firm Wärtsilä has immediately followed up its launch of hybrid and standalone energy storage systems with the acquisition of system integrator and software specialist Greensmith Energy Management Systems (Greensmith).
News in brief from this week in energy storage around the world.
Project funding for energy storage jumped to US$820 million in 2016 from just US$30 million in 2015, while Sonnen was revealed as the energy storage company to raise the most VC funding this year.
US-based energy storage project developer and software company Demand Energy has been acquired by Italian utility company Enel.
Geothermal power and renewable energy developer Ormat Technologies has signalled its intent to join demand response and energy storage markets with the purchase of Viridity Energy.
German power company innogy SE - the renewables arm of utility RWE - has completed its purchase of Belectric Solar & Battery.
The merging of Tesla and SolarCity into a single entity creates a new company well-placed to deliver a full range of energy-related products and services to consumers, analysts have said.
Tesla-SolarCity could become an energy equivalent to an Uber or AirBnB, with a merger between the two creating “an integrated sustainable energy company, which does not own any centralised generation assets”, one expert has commented.
The participation of venture capital (VC) investors seems to have cooled, while project funding has conversely seen a sharp rise, in the latest quarterly report into funding and mergers and acquisitions from Mercom Capital.
An impending €950 million (US$1.07 billion) acquisition of battery manufacturer Saft will enable French oil major Total to “span the value chain” and exploit synergies with EV and solar markets, an energy market expert has said.
Oil and gas company Total has proposed to buy battery company Saft, which produces devices for the stationary storage industry as well as for transport and other applications.
Almost US$700 million of corporate funding went into energy storage in 2015, including US$397 million from venture capital (VC) investment, according to the latest report from Mercom Capital.
Investment by UK tech entrepreneur and inventor James Dyson into battery company Sakti3 was among the biggest deals in the sector in the first quarter of this year, a new report has found.