Sales of battery storage units to residential households in Germany are booming, but it’s the value of services the batteries can provide, rather than the hardware itself that offers a long-term economic opportunity, a Siemens representative has said.

The Asian Development Bank (ADB) has agreed to part-fund a US$53.2 million undertaking to power Tonga with renewable energy, including the installation of 22.2MWh of energy storage.

With Brexit day less than a month away and still no certainty around what the final deal will look like, the time is now for the energy storage sector to prepare for every eventuality so it can play to its increasing strengths, writes Stephen Irish, co-founder of Hyperdrive Innovation.

Saba Electric Company, sole supplier of electricity to the Dutch Caribbean island of Saba, celebrated as the island ran on 100% solar for the first time ever this month, with the switch-on of a solar-plus-storage microgrid.

In the hierarchy of grid needs, peaking power is often a priority in terms of providing resiliency and balance to the network. This is usually provided by natural gas turbines, which come at a high environmental and economic cost. Andy Colthorpe charts the rise of the solar-plus-storage peaker plant.

The new mission focuses on local manufacturing across the whole supply chain for electric vehicles (EV) including battery and cell manufacturing while also supporting clean energy and storage uptake.

India has released another significant solar-plus-storage tender – this time in the southern state of Andhra Pradesh.

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.

Statkraft has partnered with energy & meteo systems to launch a 1GW wind, solar and battery storage virtual power plant in the UK, which it says will further renewables’ penetration into the country’s energy market.

RP Global, an independent renewable energy developer and majority shareholder of JUMEME Rural Power Supply, has commenced construction on the first phase of a solar-hybrid mini-grid project in Tanzania.