After China connected a huge battery to a project combining solar, wind and other generation sources, a US utility project has just been announced which will likewise combine solar and wind with a grid-scale battery.
Solar-plus-storage systems in ordinary households will provide 20MW of energy capacity in New England, with Sunrun announcing the award of a contract from the state’s ISO (independent system operator).
Schneider Electric will perform an expansion of its microgrid project at Marine Corps Air Station (MCAS) Miramar in order to boost grid resilience at the facility.
Tesla will acquire Maxwell Technologies, it was announced this week, although it is not clear yet which of Maxwell’s product lines, including ultracapacitors, are of most interest to the Silicon Valley automaker and new energy company.
A €100 million (US$114.44 million) fund will be used to develop and deploy microgrid and energy storage projects by engineering and automation firm ABB, which has recently launched a new line of solutions in those areas.
Uncertainty persists around the impact bankruptcy proceedings brought about at investor-owned utility Pacific Gas & Electric (PG&E) could have on renewables contracts and energy storage projects as it faces “extensive litigation” and “significant liabilities” for California wildfires.
Today, energy storage projects often fail to deliver value because of economic miscalculations. These computational issues, however, can now be mitigated by applying software, analytics and machine learning, write Enrico Ladendorf and Bryce Evans of Pason Power.
LG Chem, IBM and Ford Motor Company have joined an effort to increase the transparency of supply chains for cobalt used in batteries – referred to by some as the ‘Blood Diamond’ of the energy and tech sectors.
