Blair Reynolds, SMA America’s product manager for energy storage, discusses the role inverter-based renewable and storage technologies can play in maintaining grid stability.
Standalone storage, demand from commercial and industrial (C&I) customers and new types of grid services will increasingly help drive growth in energy storage in the coming years, but the future mix between battery-based and alternative storage types is still unclear.
The energy transition arm of Italy’s Enel Group has started construction on a 20MW/40MWh behind-the-meter battery energy storage system at Imperial Oil’s petrochemical complex in Sarnia, Ontario, which it claims will be the largest in North America.
Guidehouse Insights says that the annual power capacity deployments of battery-based residential energy storage systems (RESS) are expected to grow at a CAGR of 21.3% from 2021 to 2030 globally.
Construction has started on a 3.5GWh pumped hydro plant in Gran Canaria, Spain, and progress has been made on two other projects totalling 18GWh of storage in mainland Spain and Nevada, US.
Industry-watchers will closely follow how the recently completed acquisition of energy storage system integrator NEC ES by LG Energy Solution pans out.
Aspen Aerogels has raised US$150 million in financing from a Koch family investment firm to help grow its aerogel thermal barrier technology division, including new products which prevent thermal runaway in batteries.
Utility-scale battery energy storage system (BESS) installations in the US grew 196% to 2.6GW in 2021 but overall clean power installations fell 3%, according to the latest annual figures from the trade body American Clean Power Association (ACP).
Energy storage industry executives have urged US legislators to swiftly reach a consensus on the Build Back Better Act, with a strong emphasis on introducing the investment tax credit (ITC) for standalone storage.
A US government pledge of US$2.9 billion support for the country’s battery manufacturing and recycling value chain is more like a band-aid than the “major surgery” required to fix the problem.
