Britain’s government has thrown its weight behind vehicle-to-grid (V2G) by announcing £20 million (US$25.8 million) would be available for a competition to further the development of the bi-directional electric vehicle charging technology.

A supply deal has been signed, for components made by Ideal Power to be integrated into NEXTracker’s solar-plus-storage offerings, including power conversion system and solar PV inverter.

Multinational utility Enel will assess the effectiveness of flywheels, having signed an agreement with Amber Kinetics, a manufacturer of the energy storage devices.

New research from the UK has found that almost half of those asked would like to see solar and storage installed in the their homes by 2020, signalling that Britain’s domestic market may yet recover from the hard knocks of recent subsidy cuts.

Welcome to Part 2 of our in-depth talk with Nancy Pfund, managing partner at DBL Partners, a venture capital firm specialising in companies and start-ups that offer both rewarding financial returns and positive social impacts. As well as being one of the earliest backers to Tesla and SolarCity, to utility-scale solar tracker company NEXTracker to Off-Grid Electric, which deploys solar in rural Africa; to others in energy storage like Advanced Microgrid Solutions and Primus Power, Pfund is extremely well-placed to offer a quick Q&A ‘masterclass’ in energy storage investing.

Northvolt, the Swedish battery start-up founded by former Tesla executives, has closed in on two possible sites for its planned multi-gigawatt production facility.

Nancy Pfund is managing partner at DBL Partners, a venture capital firm which specialises in investing in companies and start-ups that offer both rewarding financial returns, and positive social impacts. There have been some serious clean tech companies in DBL’s portfolio, including a pre-IPO investment in Tesla. With this in mind, we spoke to Nancy about how to invest in energy storage wisely and heard her views on the waves of the future. Part 2 to be published tomorrow.

Swedish state-owned power company Vattenfall has established a new business unit dedicated to solar-plus-storage.

Louisville Gas and Electric and Kentucky Utilities (LG&E and KU), arms of US firm PPL Corporation, have developed a research centre for energy storage at a power plant in Kentucky.

Stem’s virtual power plants (VPPs) have been utilised to provide emergency demand response services in California during a major heatwave.