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.
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within the next five years, however uncertainty over DC coupling, the need for costly symmetric grid connections and outdated regulatory frameworks risk stymying the market’s growth.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.
Eskom, the state-owned electricity utility of South Africa, has begun tendering for a battery energy storage system (BESS) of minimum size and capacity 80MW / 320MWh.
Germany company Voltstorage, claiming to be the only developer and maker of home solar energy storage systems using vanadium flow batteries, raised €6 million (US$7.1 million) in July.
While lithium-ion batteries continue to take the dominant share of new installations by some distance, there are a variety of other technologies looking to complement, combine or even compete. Panellists at the Energy Storage Digital Series looked at the questions of which energy storage technologies are the likeliest contenders for that future.
Zinc-based battery energy storage manufacturer Eos Energy Storage has signed an agreement with an EPC partner to deploy systems based on its devices at rural microgrids, beginning with projects in Nigeria.
