E.ON, the German utility giant with 61GW of generation assets, has announced plans to split its business in two. The company will stake its future on renewables in a major restructuring, spinning off its conventional power generation business, in part as a response to the growth in distributed generation. Cosmin Laslau of Lux Research digs deeper.

This year will be the one when “PV energy storage systems (PVESS) make an enormous leap toward wide-scale adoption”, according to research firm IHS.

Investment bank Citigroup is predicting a 240GW global battery storage market worth US$400 billion by 2030 as increased deployment creates a “virtuous circle” of falling costs.

Bosch, BMW and Swedish state-owned power company Vattenfall have begun the latest attempt to harness the potential of batteries used in electric vehicles (EVs) to provide stability to electrical grid infrastructure.

Chilean authorities have received plans for an ambitious 600MW PV plant project which could be connected to a 300MW pumped hydro energy storage plant, from developer Valhalla Energy.

Energy storage and battery companies netted US$418 million in funding, while a further US$232 million changed hands in mergers and acquisitions (M&A) of battery or storage companies during 2014, according to a new report from Mercom Capital.

Energy security is a growing concern for economies across the world with electricity outages currently costing economies billions of dollars annually, driving electricity prices up. The US experienced nearly 700 power outages caused by severe weather between 2003 and 2012, costing the country up to US$70 billion annually.

The failure of a grid-connected storage system at a solar farm in Hawaii is part of the learning process the US island state is undergoing to integrate more PV using storage, according to analyst Dean Frankel at Lux Research.

A UK auction held to provide the nation with energy security, has failed to deliver the boost to energy storage that a top government minister had hinted would be the case, according to a number of commentators and industry figures.

Will the Indian battery market scenario witness a major change? As the power supply in the country continues to be unreliable, the role of batteries has to change from being an emergency back-up solution to a long time power/energy storage solution.