India’s Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE) has invited comments from stakeholders on its draft ‘National Policy for Renewable Energy based Micro and Mini Grids’.

Energy storage provider Schmid Energy Systems has signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with vanadium supplier VanadiumCorp Resource to jointly work on mineral extraction and developing vanadium electrolyte.

Anthony Price of consultancy Swanbarton previews the International Flow Battery Forum in Germany with a quick primer on the technology, its uses and some of the players attending the event.

St Eustatius’ Statia Utility Company (STUCO) has welcomed a “user-friendly” hybrid system which enables it to provide enough clean energy to cover more than 23% of the island’s annual electricity demand.

While seeming “tech breakthroughs” garner a great deal of media attention, the three key factors in determining the likely impact of storage tech companies are innovative technology, scalability and a proven track record, a Bloomberg New Energy Finance analyst has said.

French energy storage system maker Electro Power Systems has reported “outstanding results” for the first quarter of this year as well as a €2.4 million backlog of orders in East Africa, Asia-Pacific and Italy.

An impending €950 million (US$1.07 billion) acquisition of battery manufacturer Saft will enable French oil major Total to “span the value chain” and exploit synergies with EV and solar markets, an energy market expert has said.

Oil and gas company Total has proposed to buy battery company Saft, which produces devices for the stationary storage industry as well as for transport and other applications.

Global maker of construction and mining equipment Caterpillar has launched an integrated micro-grid solution which combines solar PV and energy storage with the company’s power generation equipment.

SolarReserve eyes 1GW solar thermal storage deal in China, first bi-directional inverter launched and proposed Australian pumped hydro site up capacity to 450MW.