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.

The UK’s Renewable Energy Association (REA) has launched two new trade groups to represent the solar and storage industries respectively.

Grid storage and distributed energy technologies overseen by the Advanced Research Projects Agency – Energy (ARPA-E) in the US will be accredited by technical advisory service DNV GL for the next four years.

Just 3–4% of electricity generated by utilities globally is stored today, according to the International Energy Agency. This is despite the fact that storage can help overcome the energy ‘trilemma’ of curbing rising energy prices, the need to ensure the security of supply and creating a low carbon economy. So, what’s the hold-up? Taking the UK as his starting point but with lessons transferrable to other regions, Roger Lin of NEC Energy Solutions explains and counters some of the myths that stand in its way.

A US regional electricity transmission and distribution operator’s plan to install energy storage batteries could enable ‘benefit stacking’ as a way of overcoming “crippling challenges” faced by energy storage, according to one energy expert.

A new scheme to provide grid-balancing services directly from the batteries of electric vehicles (EVs) will be trialled by car maker BMW, in partnership with California utility company Pacific Gas & Electric (PG&E).

A community-owned utility company in California is preparing to install a large-scale battery system that could enable the addition of around 50MW of solar generation capacity to the local grid.