In the past month we have heard a lot about the future of storage in the UK. From plans by the government and regulator to enable greater flexibility across electricity networks to changes to technical rules governing the market, there’s been a sense that a great deal is changing. Analyst Lauren Cook of Solar Media’s in-house market research team takes a look at the utility-scale pipeline figures behind the headlines.

Pierre-Pascal Urbon, CEO of solar inverter manufacturer SMA, has said that the company is anticipating medium-term “exponential growth” in the energy storage market, reporting a “positive performance” in storage-related sales.

The UK’s Institution of Engineering and Technology (IET) has published its long-awaited Code of Practice for Electrical Energy Storage Systems, filling what has been described as a vacuum of clear guidance for installers and their customers.

Nidec ASI will be installing 5MW / 5MWh of battery energy storage at a utility-scale wind farm on the French island territory of Martinique, aimed at stabilising and maximising the flow of energy onto the grid.

The sale of an NEC Corporation business division involved in manufacturing lithium-ion batteries will have no material impact on the group’s activities in energy storage, according to a company spokesman.

There is a global trend towards longer duration energy storage and even in this segment, lithium-ion batteries are expected to dominate the market over flow batteries and other technologies, an I.H.S Markit analyst has told Energy-Storage.News.

Clean energy firm Holaluz has completed Spain’s first shared self-consumption solar PV and battery storage facility on a house near Barcelona.

In the UK, a new, quarter of a billion-pound innovation competition for batteries has been launched, while plans for overhaul of the energy sector promising a “determined, joined-up, far-sighted and deliberate approach from government” appear to have been met with relish by the industry. Consultant Robert Ede goes beyond headlines to look at what this might really mean in practical terms.

Residential battery storage has won a partial victory after the UK government agreed to a tax break for battery systems, but only if they are supplied and installed alongside solar panels.

Trina BESS, the battery energy storage company originally launched alongside Chinese PV giant Trina Solar but now run as an entity in its own right, sold 1,000 residential units in the first half of this year.