Energy-Storage.news editor Andy Colthorpe reports back from Solar Power International 2019 in Salt Lake City on trends including bifacial PV modules, corporate PPAs, utilities and energy storage as a grid infrastructure asset and lots more.

CATL sold 21.31GWh of lithium batteries in 2018, primarily to the EV market in China, but after exhibiting at two major trade shows in the west, claims its 12,000 cycle lithium iron phosphate batteries are ready to take on the stationary energy storage system (ESS) market, too.

The huge upsurge in lithium-ion battery deployment expected over the next two decades poses a particular problem: what to do with cells that have reached the end of their useful life. Stefan Hogg investigates how lithium recycling will come into its own to handle spent batteries

Energy Storage Special Report 2019, from the editorial teams behind Energy-Storage.news and PV Tech, brings you no less than seven feature articles and technical papers looking at everything from the policy and regulatory initiatives that still need to happen, to bankability and profitability of ESS, system technologies and architecture, all the way to recycling and end-of-life care for batteries.

We’ve arrived at Day One of Smart Energy Week – hosting Solar Power International and Energy Storage International in Utah. Here are some of my observations: both on and ‘off’ the record.

The UK pledges US$250 million for global energy storage as France and the Netherlands announce US$100 million for solar initiatives.

New four-project portfolio heralds the emergence of New England’s solar-plus-storage industry after years of “behind-the-scenes” activity, firm says.

A 300MW pipeline of behind-the-meter energy storage projects in Canada and the US will be executed by large engineering firm Honeywell, with Canadian project developer NRStor.

While sized only at 30kW, the successful installation of a battery energy storage system in Puebla, Mexico, is nonetheless being hailed as a milestone as it is claimed to be the first such system to deliver frequency regulation services in the country.

A new white paper from Wärtsilä Energy shows that being able to integrate and then optimise all of these different assets is the key to ensuring that your project – and your investment – is going to provide the maximum benefit, longest possible lifetime in the field – and the best business case. Risto Paldanius, Director of Business Development, Energy Storage and Integration at Wärtsilä told us a bit more about what optimization really means in today’s energy market.