New Zealand’s small handful of advanced energy storage systems will be added to with the NZ$2 million (US$1.45 million) trial deployment of a grid-scale Tesla Powerpack 2 by energy generator and retailer Mercury.

Flow batteries will take another major step towards widespread bankability with Lockheed Martin Energy launching its own system before the end of the year.

Major oil company Shell and European utility ENGIE are among investors to have pumped US$20 million into Husk Power Systems, a developer of microgrids which is expanding its efforts in Asia and Africa.

The Australian Capital Territory, the country’s federal district and home of national capital Canberra, is supporting the planned roll-out of 36MW of customer-sited batteries by funding a further AU$3 million (US$2.39 million) in rebates.

AES Energy Storage and Siemens, which between them have delivered 500MW of energy storage worldwide already, will target 160 different countries and build a 400MWh battery system in California through new joint venture Fluence.

French renewable energy developer and independent power producer Neoen, which together with Tesla recently delivered a 100MW / 129MWh grid-supporting battery system in South Australia, has just signed a “support agreement” with local authorities for its next big project in the country.

Dr. Rahul Walawalkar of the Indian Energy Storage Alliance also predicts at least two lithium-ion cell manufacturing plants of 500MWh+ capacity to start construction in India this year.

Well, we seem to say it at the end of every year, but 2017 seemed a lot busier than 2016, 2016 was busier and more exciting than the year before that, and so on! There have been some hints already on what the industry and its observers expect to see in 2018 and we do not doubt energy storage will continue in its rise to become a flexible cornerstone of the world’s electricity infrastructure. In the meantime, let’s reflect on the top news stories of last year, as reported by Energy-Storage.News and based on readership statistics from you:

While acknowledging that the economics “vary significantly” by region and application, Navigant Research has forecast that energy storage for integration of renewables and co-located with solar or wind could be worth more than US$20 billion by 2026.

Shanghai-headquartered energy storage system maker Pylontech has become the first company to receive certification from TUV Rheinland that its lithium battery storage devices are suitable for use in Germany.