The US Department of Energy (DOE) established the Office of Clean Energy Demonstrations in late December, a new DOE office that will help deliver on President Joe Biden’s climate plans.

The first lithium-ion battery cells have been produced at Northvolt’s new gigafactory in Sweden and a UK sodium-ion battery startup has been acquired by the solar subsidiary of India’s Reliance Industries.

Neoen has started full commercial operations at its Bulgana Green Power Hub in the state of Victoria, Australia, which includes a 20MW / 34MWh battery energy storage system (BESS) paired with a 204MW wind farm. 

Used lithium-ion batteries taken from carmaker Audi’s electric vehicles (EVs) have been repurposed into a ‘second-life’ stationary energy storage system by energy company RWE at a project in Herdecke, Germany. 

The energy storage division of solar PV inverter manufacturer Sungrow has signed a 430MWh battery energy storage system (BESS) contract with Israel’s Enlight Renewable Energy. 

While we’re waiting to get started up for what looks like being a busier year than ever in 2022, let’s look back as we reveal the most-read blogs and features for 2021.

Let’s take a look now and see which news stories were most read during 2021 here on the site.

For this third instalment of our look back at 2021, we’ve something of a mixture of views from around the industry.

The Solar Media editorial team reflect on what’s proven to be a frenetic 12 months for the global solar PV and energy storage industries.

Burns & McDonnell and Recurrent Energy give their takes on the key successes and challenges of the past year in energy storage.