Saft wins deal with Saudi Arabian industrial giant, Swiss college adds battery to smart grid research and an energy storage caucus hits Capitol Hill.
Lux Research published 2015’s fourth quarter update to its Grid Storage Tracker earlier this month, tracking every stationary deployment of advanced energy storage globally. Dean Frankel, research associate at Lux talks through some of the headline findings and big trends and explains why it has been a “monumental year” for energy storage.
One research firm has welcomed predictions from a think tank that Germany’s electricity network could cope with the addition of “huge amounts” of solar-plus-storage and even benefit, but also agreed that policy changes will most likely be required to enable that scenario.
The UK’s Institution of Civil Engineers (ICE) has publishing a report which looks at how unlocking the potential of electricity storage through regulatory changes would support the transition to a secure and affordable low carbon economy, adding to a chorus of recent voices on similar topics coming from Britain.
PV Tech Storage spoke to Nancy Pfund of ‘social impact’ investors DBL Partners, among Tesla’s early backers and participants in two of the top five VC fund plays of this year’s third quarter.
Jordan’s state power company, NEPCO (National Electric Company), looks likely to deploy 20MW of battery-based energy storage, which according to storage provider AES Corporation will be aimed at easing the integration of wind and solar into the country’s energy networks.
Doosan Fuel Cell America will supply 30.8MW of hydrogen fuel cells to Busan, South Korea, in a deal also involving Samsung Construction and Trading (Samsung C&T) and Korea Hydro and Nuclear Power.
The importance of balancing and improving electric grids is opening up pathways to the deployment of utility-scale energy storage, according to a Guest Blog from SMA Solar Technology, published this week on PV Tech Storage.
In contrast to “behind-the-meter” household energy storage systems, whose operational strategy is generally aimed at local financial optimisation of power consumption, the use cases for battery technologies on an industrial scale are primarily determined by the requirements of the electricity supply grids, particularly the regional distribution grids. SMA’s Voker Wachenfeld and Dr Alexsandra Sasa Bukvic-Schaefer take a closer look at some of the demands and applications driving the sector forward.
Financial activity in the third quarter of this year was slightly flatter than Q2 for smart grid, batteries, energy storage and energy efficiency, but the average deal size grew, according to Mercom Capital Group.
