Ireland’s first grid-scale battery system was commissioned at the beginning of 2020 but was followed just a few months later by another one 10 times larger. The opportunities for further development in the country appear huge, with a grid operator willing to recognise the role energy storage can play in balancing the network.
A debt financing deal closed by independent power producer (IPP) sPower for a 100MW / 400MWh battery storage project in California demonstrates that significant project finance investment can be achieved for large-scale battery facilities.
With coal on its way out and decarbonisation across many parts of the US now an integral part of state level policies, could the demise of natural gas be the next step? Gas is seen by many as an interim solution in the energy transition and provides flexibility to energy networks that have adopted a greater share of renewables, but the tide could be turning against this last great dinosaur of the fossil age.
It has yet to build its first project but Jupiter Power, a developer, owner and operator of utility-scale energy storage has claimed it will deploy 652MWh of battery storage during 2021, kicking off a 10GW development pipeline.
The February 2021 episode of the Solar Media Podcast is now available to stream and asks the question: Could solar energy deployment in 2021 top 200GW?
A US$70 million funding round has been successfully closed by Highview Power, a UK-headquartered company which has developed a liquid air energy storage (LAES) system called the ‘CRYOBattery’.
When turbines at a natural gas power plant in California go offline, battery energy storage will be used as a ‘much cleaner alternative’ to diesel or other fossil fuels in getting them up and running again.
Wärtsilä Corporation has been contracted to install a 10MW battery energy storage system at a wind farm in Mexico, marking an expansion into the country for the energy solutions provider.
Solar inverter manufacturer Sungrow’s energy storage system integration arm has supplied a DC-coupled lithium-ion battery storage system to a solar farm which went online in northern Japan in December.
