US President Barack Obama has visited battery manufacturer Saft America’s automated lithium-ion battery manufacturing plant in Jacksonville, Florida, claiming that government policy on clean energy helped support employment at the facility.

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.

German utility E.On is to develop its own energy storage products in partnership with manufacturer SOLARWATT.

Power conversion technology developer Ideal Power announced that it has signed off on a Master Purchase Agreement with Powin Corporation — a provider of commercial and industrial energy storage systems — to supply its 30kW and 125kW power conversion systems for Powin’s selection of commercial battery energy storage systems.

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.

Germany’s support programme for solar-plus-storage systems, which offers a rebate on the devices, has been officially re-launched as expected by the Federal Ministry of Economic Affairs and Energy.

The UK looks set for the arrival of energy storage in a big way this year. While these companies and their battery chemistries are fighting it out for both market share and brand awareness, several energy storage systems have been deployed already on a commercial basis using a more novel storage technology – the saltwater battery.