Hawaii has been a prolific installer of both rooftop solar and latterly batteries for energy storage and one of the US state’s smaller islands looks set to get its first ever grid-scale solar-plus-storage system.
A modestly-sized grid-scale battery will be installed at a natural gas plant in Queensland, Australia, boosting the efficiency of the existing power station and providing emergency backup, as well as helping integrate local renewable energy.
Britain’s transmission system operator National Grid has confirmed it will roll out the use of its Ancillary Services Dispatch Platform (ASDP) to a number of services over the next year following the successful dispatch of fast reserve using battery storage last month.
Minnesota electric cooperative Connexus Energy has confirmed recent press reports that it is building 15MW / 30MWh of battery energy storage, while another not-for-profit, Vermont Electric Cooperative, will build a 1.9MW / 5.3MWh system in its service area.
Tim Humpage, head of EPC at British Solar Renewables, discusses some of the key ‘ingredients’ to his company’s work on the 49.9MW Pelham battery, completed on behalf of Statera Energy late last year.
In response to Massachusetts Legislature passing a bill raising the state’s renewable energy standard and another encouraging clean energy and energy storage use during peak hours, solar and energy storage trade groups SEIA and ESA offered contrasting views.
The U.S. Trade and Development Agency (USTDA) is supporting a 41MW hybrid solar-wind-storage project being developed by private Indian energy firm IL&FS Energy Development Company Limited (IEDCL) in the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh by providing a grant to aid the plant’s technical design and planning.
Solar Energy Corporation of India (SECI) has issued a tender for EPC of a grid-connected 2MWac solar PV project linked with 1MW / 1MWh of battery energy storage on government land at Kaza, in the mountainous state of Himachal Pradesh.
VC funding for battery energy storage companies in the first half of this year has already exceeded 2016’s total and looks on the way to bettering 2017, with US$539 million raised across 29 deals.