Despite the growing interest and deployment figures for lithium-ion batteries for stationary energy storage, its ‘predecessor’ lead acid still has a strong role to play in enabling more and more people to go solar, a representative of Trojan Battery has argued.

BYD has just opened a gigawatt-scale lithium battery factory in Qinghai Province, a few days after a senior company representative told Energy-Storage.news that, like electric vehicles (EVs), it is only a matter of time before lithium batteries for stationary storage reach mainstream acceptance.

Even among high level stakeholders, there are real gaps in education, knowledge and understanding of what energy storage is, and what it can do. We were privileged at last week’s Intersolar Europe/ees Europe shows in Munich, Germany, to be joined by four leading thinkers – and doers – in the energy storage industry, who helped us tackle this difficult question.

The doors opened for Intersolar Europe/ees Europe this year. Here are some photographic highlights taken from the exhibition.

European Commission vice president for energy, Marcos Sefcovic has referred to an EU action plan for ‘green batteries’ to be made in Europe, citing the technology as vital for renewable energy integration as well as giving the continent a ‘competitive edge’.

This week the editorial teams of Solar Media’s international brands, PV Tech and Energy-Storage.news, will be among those travelling to Munich for the Intersolar Europe trade show, which once again includes the electrical energy storage Europe (ees Europe) event.

Increasingly, solar energy and behind-the-meter battery storage assets are being deployed on an ‘as-a-service’ basis and system integrator Younicos has decided to replicate the strategy for microgrids.

First developed by NASA, flow batteries are a potential answer to storing solar – and wind – for eight to 10 hours, far beyond what is commonly achieved today with lithium-ion. In the first of a two-part special report, Andy Colthorpe learns what the flow battery industry faces in the fight for commercialisation.

An Indian clean energy firm hopes to bring down the cost of lithium-ion cell manufacturing below INR15,000/kWh (US$222) by setting up a facility in the southern state of Tamil Nadu.

Australia could be getting its first lithium-ion battery ‘Gigafactory’, with some progress made in the past few days for a facility proposed to be built in Queensland.