German luxury carmaker Mercedes Benz has officially launched a dedicated energy division, focusing on its range of lithium-ion storage battery systems, following a series of related announcements including tie-ups with inverter maker SMA.

While seeming “tech breakthroughs” garner a great deal of media attention, the three key factors in determining the likely impact of storage tech companies are innovative technology, scalability and a proven track record, a Bloomberg New Energy Finance analyst has said.

While most of the press attention around decarbonising transport has centred on electric cars, Leclanché has supplied lithium-ion batteries to power a ferry in Latvia for an EU demonstration project.

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.

SolarReserve eyes 1GW solar thermal storage deal in China, first bi-directional inverter launched and proposed Australian pumped hydro site up capacity to 450MW.

Operators of transmission infrastructure and wholesale markets in the US have supplied their views on energy storage to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC), with industry and other stakeholders expected to follow. Energy-Storage.News’ Andy Colthorpe spoke with Energy Storage Association policy expert Jason Burwen on what he describes as a “systematic review” that could have a transformative effect on the market and drivers for storage.

All the news, views and updates from the Energy Storage Summit at Twickenham Stadium, London.

Ahead of the Energy Storage Summit in London on Thursday, our publisher sets the scene for the UK clean energy landscape with this quick video explainer.

Tesla is predicting it could sell more stationary storage to SolarCity during 2016 than was deployed in the entire behind-the-meter segment of the US market last year, according to analysis by GTM Research.