New study predicts the energy storage industry will grow to employ millions by 2050, fuelling a renewables jobs boom as fossil fuel industries shed millions of workers.
ZAF Energy Systems, a maker of nickel-zinc (NiZn) batteries which in 2019 claimed a “breakthrough in cycle life” has netted a contract to outfit a data centre in the Southern US for integrator Capitol Power Group (CPG).
While pumped hydro plants still account for around 96% of installed capacity of stationary energy storage worldwide, there will be more than 28GW of lithium batteries deployed for stationary storage applications by the year 2028, Navigant Research has predicted.
Canada-headquartered start-up Li-Cycle has claimed a victory in commercialising its lithium battery recycling processes, with a shipment sent to a customer just before the end of last year.
Nevada utility NV Energy and Google are plotting a major solar-plus-storage facility outside of Las Vegas in a deal being billed as the largest battery-backed solar corporate agreement in the world.
New York Governor Andrew Cuomo’s annual State of the State Address has reaffirmed his administration’s commitment to combating climate change and growing the green economy, while West Virginia Governor Jim Justice’s address spoke of “fighting” to retain coal jobs.
While lithium-ion batteries get most of the headlines, long-duration solutions of various types are gaining ground. Alice Grundy and Andy Colthorpe profile some of the established and emerging concepts in this increasingly important field.
