Homeowners across Afghanistan are set to benefit from the country’s first pay-as-you-go (PAYG) home solar systems combined with energy storage batteries, being delivered in a pioneering new programme.

With carbon reduction goals a long way off from being met in Europe’s transport sector, energy storage can play a key role in coupling transportation and energy technologies, the European Association for Storage of Energy (EASE) has said.

A new poll has identified energy storage as the most promising technology for institutional investors keen on renewable assets, amid plans by many to ramp up allocations.

SA Water, which delivers water to more than one-and-a-half million people in South Australia, has picked out local contractor Enerven to execute the roll-out of PV and battery storage across 70 of its facilities in the next 18 months.

UK battery storage firm Zenobe Energy has secured a £25 million (US$32.27 million) investment from Japanese power giants Jera and Tokyo Electric Power Company (Tepco).

Firm spies potential for more than 4.5GW of flexible power capacity in the UK alone and a home energy management industry which it expects to be worth more than US£2 billion (US$2.58 billion) a year by 2025.

Shell is to acquire German battery storage manufacturer sonnen in a bid to accelerate its home energy services position.

Consumers in a South London housing estate will soon be able to trade solar power amongst themselves as an blockchain-enabled pilot project backed by EDF gets underway.

Solar-plus-storage systems in ordinary households will provide 20MW of energy capacity in New England, with Sunrun announcing the award of a contract from the state’s ISO (independent system operator).

The scrapping of the UK’s Zero Carbon homes policy is costing occupants of new-build homes more than £200 (US$257.14) per year, essentially three times the targeted savings from a price cap set by the regulator, Ofgem.