With the recognition that “battery technology holds the key” to a future of cleaner transport and flexible, resilient electricity grids, four key US government departments have jointly established a Federal Consortium for Advanced Batteries (FCAB).
Lithium has been added to a list of raw materials deemed essential to secure supply in Europe, for the first time ever, by the European Commission.
Agreements to deploy 1GWh of novel aqueous zinc battery energy storage in Texas and 500MWh in California have been struck by technology provider Eos Energy Storage, marking a massive scale-up in expected installations for the systems.
News in brief from around the world in energy storage.
Canadian energy storage technology manufacturer Eguana Technologies has reported greatly increased revenues in its latest quarterly financial results, with the company making recent deals in territories including Japan and Germany.
Liam Stoker and Andy Colthorpe return for the August 2020 episode of the Solar Media podcast, reflecting on the biggest news stories from the global solar and energy storage ecosystems.
Lithium iron phosphate (LFP) chemistry batteries’ perceived safety advantage over their ‘rival’ nickel manganese cobalt (NMC) may be overstated and claims to that effect stand in the way of “transparent discussion”, Energy-Storage.news has heard.
Standards, guidance and best practice relating to the installation and deployment of battery storage are often talked about in the industry, and rightly so. What is perhaps less often focused upon, is evaluation of the battery equipment itself before it even leaves the factory. PI Berlin’s Benjamin Sternkopf and Ian Gregory speak about their new lithium cell assessment service.
As demand for lithium-ion batteries from the solar energy industry grows, high standards of manufacturing processes are as important as cell design and materials, representatives of PI Berlin have said.
Canadian Solar has highlighted the increasing importance of adding energy storage to PV projects and the “significant growth opportunities in the solar-plus-storage market” while reporting its latest quarterly financial results.
“Preventing a service event from becoming a catastrophic one,” is how Cadenza Innovation CEO Christina Lampe Onnerud describes the way her company’s lithium-ion ‘Supercell’ battery architecture reacts to thermal runaway.
Lithium battery cells will be rolling off a production line at a 16GWh-capacity factory in France in 2023, with manufacturing startup Verkor then planning to scale up to 50GWh “in line with market dynamics”.
Northvolt has now raised over US$3 billion to support its plans to become a major player in the European battery manufacturing space, including US$1.6 billion in debt financing which it announced today.
While lithium-ion batteries continue to take the dominant share of new installations by some distance, there are a variety of other technologies looking to complement, combine or even compete. Panellists at the Energy Storage Digital Series looked at the questions of which energy storage technologies are the likeliest contenders for that future.
The company behind what looks set to be Norway’s first gigawatt-scale manufacturing facility for lithium-ion battery cells has secured pre-construction financing of NOK130 million (US$13.85 million) which it said will “enable rapid development” of the plant.
What will the impact of COVID-19 be on the energy storage market? And how best to learn to adapt to whatever the 'next normal' will be? Florian Mayr at cleantech advisory and consultancy group Apricum examines the bigger picture of “energy storage vs the virus”.
Battery system integrators must navigate a broad array of technologies and varying market drivers when putting systems together. Andy Colthorpe speaks to Powin Energy and Sungrow about the engineering challenges involved in building lithium-ion battery storage.
Germany-headquartered battery manufacturer Varta will receive €300 million (US$338 million) of government funding to develop large format lithium-ion cells, which has been deemed a project of potentially strategic interest for Europe.
Calls have been made across Europe for recognition and support for the vital role that energy storage can play in decarbonisation, reducing air pollution and contributing to a ‘green recovery’, both through legislation and industry sector activity.
News in brief from around the world in energy storage.
A new service from Photovoltaik Institut Berlin (PI Berlin) looks to solve a pitfall that often awaits solar industry stakeholders when adding energy storage to their projects: making sure the production quality of the batteries they choose meets their requirements.
South Wales is likely to be the location for the UK’s first lithium-ion 'gigaplant', as Britishvolt announces plans to combine the site with solar.
Leclanché is undergoing a “strategic reorganisation” of the company and said it has secured funding for its manufacturing and R&D activities while also announcing a pivot towards becoming a “green tech software and systems integration company”.
Storage system providers EnerSys and NeoVolta have made significant changes to their Boards of Directors and Advisors respectively, while US large-scale energy storage independent power producer (IPP) Key Capture Energy has appointed a new director of technology.
The government of India has announced measures to promote new “Champion Sectors” of economic growth, including support incentives for advanced battery cell and solar PV manufacturing.
Construction looks set to begin this year on a factory building flow batteries, as a joint venture (JV) formed by German tech company Schmid Group and Saudi Arabian investment company Nusaned closed the transaction to seal its partnership.
The Energy Storage Digital Series, an online-only conference and webinar series, produced and hosted by the events division of our publisher Solar Media kicked off yesterday. Here are some highlights and key quotes from opening panel discussion: 'Predicting the energy storage tech of the future'.
South Korean lithium-ion battery manufacturer SK Innovation will begin construction on the second of two manufacturing plants in the US state of Georgia this summer, with the first already under construction.
The cost of battery energy storage has continued on its trajectory downwards and now stands at US$150 per megawatt-hour for battery storage with four hours’ discharge duration, making it more and more competitive with fossil fuels. Andy Colthorpe spoke to Tifenn Brandily, lead author of BloombergNEF's latest LCOE report.
“We are happy about the Italian government's decision that allows us to fully resume business operations in Italy,” Manz AG CEO Martin Drasch has said, following a ruling that deems lithium-ion battery production to be of ‘strategic importance’ for the European country.