In this final episode of the Solar Media Podcast for 2020, Liam Stoker and Andy Colthorpe reflect on the biggest stories of the year and gaze into their crystal balls for 2021.

The latest edition of PV Tech Power – PV Tech Power 25 – is now available to download from the PV Tech Store. Volume 25 of our downstream solar journal tackles a number of the most pressing topics in utility-scale solar development today and includes Storage & Smart Power, the section contributed to every edition by the team here at Energy-Storage.news.

Ensuring high quality levels in the manufacturing of lithium-ion batteries is critical to preventing underperformance and even safety risks. Benjamin Sternkopf, Ian Greory and David Prince of PI Berlin examine the prerequisites for finding the ‘sweet spot’ between a battery’s cost, performance and lifetime.

News in brief from around the world in energy storage.

A solar-plus-storage microgrid being deployed at an alloys mine in South Africa will feature a vanadium flow battery energy storage system, using locally sourced vanadium electrolyte.

Indian engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) firm Sterling and Wilson has partnered with French EPC Vergnet to develop a solar-storage and diesel genset hybrid project in Niger, West Africa.

South Africa’s Ministry of Mineral Resources and Energy is conducting a fairly unique procurement programme for 2GW of energy capacity, to come from a “range of energy source technologies”. Clean Horizon head of market analysis, Corentin Baschet, spoke to Andy Colthorpe about what the “almost technology agnostic” tender aims to do and the type of companies and projects likely to be successful in it.

Eos Energy Storage will deploy a further 2MWh of its zinc battery storage systems across four rural microgrid projects in Nigeria.

A multi-gigawatt co-location market looks set to take off within the next five years, however uncertainty over DC coupling, the need for costly symmetric grid connections and outdated regulatory frameworks risk stymying the market’s growth.

A selection of video replays from the Energy Storage Digital Series, hosted earlier this year by Energy-Storage.news’ publisher Solar Media are available on YouTube and have been compiled into a handy playlist.