The US Trade and Development Agency (USTDA) is promoting a Request for Proposals (RfP) to US companies to design, build and install hybrid solar PV and energy storage microgrid generation systems in Haiti.

Work has been completed on a 1MW / 2MWh battery energy storage system for a ‘multi-resource microgrid’ in Denver, by Younicos and its project partners, Panasonic and utility Xcel Energy.

Clearly, renewable energy is now a viable alternative to traditional generation from a cost perspective. However solar and wind’s penetration of the grid is constrained by ageing infrastructure, high grid connection costs and their intermittent, weather-dependent nature. Scott McGregor looks at how long-duration energy storage on an industrial scale can help.

UK flow battery provider redT will deliver a 1.08MWh energy storage project to support the distributed energy system in Cornwall, England, and potentially take part in utility Centrica’s developing ‘virtual energy marketplace’.

French hybrid energy storage solutions provider Electro Power Systems has secured an equity-linked financing deal to the sum of €30 million (US$31.88 million) with the European Investment Bank (EIB).

Younicos CEO Stephen L. Prince ponders the role of energy storage within the three ‘Ds’ revolutionising energy: digitisation, decentralisation and decarbonisation.

California’s Self-Generation Incentive Program (SGIP), the scheme to incentivise the use of distributed energy, opens for applications at the beginning of next month, weighted to favour energy storage.

Leclanché has hailed recent project wins and a potential 450MW pipeline in reporting an improvement on its finances, which the company’s CFO has called “the first stage of our journey towards EBITDA breakeven”.

A Swiss fund aimed at encouraging institutional investors to get on board with energy storage has reached its first closing at €66 million (US$70.4 million).

Axion Power International, focusing on “hybrid battery technology” that combines lead acid with the properties of carbon-based supercapacitors, has warned that it is in financial trouble after failed attempts to commercialise its devices.