The potential for integrating energy storage, wind and solar energy in India is to be investigated under a new US-backed study, which will help India design its future grid.

The Solar Energy Corporation of India (SECI) has invited expressions of interest for what may be India’s first utility-scale energy storage project to be combined with a solar and wind hybrid project at Rangreek in the mountainous state of Himachal Pradesh.

The Japanese city in which the manufacturing bases of lithium-ion battery makers including Panasonic, Hitachi Maxcell and GS Yuasa are located will play host to the world’s biggest energy storage battery and system testing facility to date.

In the simplest terms, if 2014 was the year of test deployments and proving storage can work, 2015 was a year of getting things done. But what are the big trends likely to drive the space on in 2016? Lux Research closely tracks the energy storage industry, in combination with solar, in terms of its synergy with EVs and in its own right. Andy Colthorpe spoke with Lux analyst Cosmin Laslau to get his views and predictions on what we can expect to see this year.

Roundup: EV registrations leaped 68% in 2015, EDF goes to PJM and SolarCity launches solar, storage and heat in integrated offering in Hawaii.

UK manufacturers and distributors are offering many different forms of training in energy storage installation for residential and small commercial level all over the country, in expectation that solar installers will want to add energy storage to their product ranges and skillsets.

Utilities will “embrace energy storage” this year, while the development of standardised contracts and aggregated behind-the-meter storage are expected to take the energy storage world by storm, according to Navigant Research.

Lichtblick, a retailer of ‘green electricity and green gas’ headquartered in Germany, is looking to take its concept for integrating multiple distributed generation sources into a single network into international markets.

Holland’s national grid operator has said that batteries will be an “excellent alternative” to conventional power plants in providing balancing services, especially as a complement to increased solar and wind deployment.

Nigel Morris, chief executive at solar firm RoofJuice Australia, who has been in the solar game for more than two decades, explains what stands in the way of Australia’s significant energy storage potential.