Despite the huge strides energy storage has made, significant hurdles remain before the technology in its many guises can be claimed to have fulfilled its massive potential. E-S.n editor Andy Colthorpe assesses the key successes and ongoing challenges for this indispensable part of the future power system.

Battery storage operators in the UK could be set for a raft of new opportunities after the country’s system operator National Grid called for a review of security standards.

The colossal solar boom Italy wants to drive in a decade could lie beyond reach if developers do not act to embrace energy storage more decisively, industry players have argued at a recent event.

The dramatic fall in cost, occuring alongside the mass roll-out of home storage systems in Germany since 2013, has highlighted the potential of decentralised batteries in virtual power plants to utility companies and grid operators.

Gone are Europe’s weekly FCR auctions, replaced by daily auctions in a move designed to create greater flexibility and improve international co-operation in these markets in Europe, writes Jean-Paul Harreman of EnAppSys.

A £55 million (US$67.8 million) fund has been earmarked for five projects in the UK looking at developing the next generation of battery storage technology.

The EU’s latest Clean Energy Package (CEP) is “undoubtedly positive” for energy storage, with the technology expected to play a key role in meeting the legislation’s ambitious “32% by 2030” renewables target, Brittney Elzarei, senior policy officer at trade organisation EASE has said.

Eguana Technologies has signed a deal with contract manufacturer Jabil for the production of residential and commercial energy storage systems.

A study co-written by industry figures has put forward new claims of the cost-competitiveness of European solar-plus-storage, amid predictions that grid parity will unfold continent-wide by 2025.

As battery owners and operators seek to maximise the returns from their assets, they simultaneously face the Herculean challenge of managing degradation.