While the global energy storage industry has continued its pace of rapid growth during the past year, well-established markets remain highly concentrated in specific regions of the world. Alex Eller of Navigant Research discusses many of the factors influencing growth trends for energy storage at both utility-scale and distributed levels.
New research from the UK has found that almost half of those asked would like to see solar and storage installed in the their homes by 2020, signalling that Britain’s domestic market may yet recover from the hard knocks of recent subsidy cuts.
Welcome to Part 2 of our in-depth talk with Nancy Pfund, managing partner at DBL Partners, a venture capital firm specialising in companies and start-ups that offer both rewarding financial returns and positive social impacts. As well as being one of the earliest backers to Tesla and SolarCity, to utility-scale solar tracker company NEXTracker to Off-Grid Electric, which deploys solar in rural Africa; to others in energy storage like Advanced Microgrid Solutions and Primus Power, Pfund is extremely well-placed to offer a quick Q&A ‘masterclass’ in energy storage investing.
Energy storage system and PV module manufacturer Solarwatt and PV inverter specialist Fronius have formed a partnership to supply each other’s products, covering five European countries and Australia.
Nasdaq Helsinki-listed power company Wärtsilä’s acquisition of software specialist, system integrator and turnkey energy storage system provider Greensmith has been completed.
Northvolt, the Swedish battery start-up founded by former Tesla executives, has closed in on two possible sites for its planned multi-gigawatt production facility.
Nancy Pfund is managing partner at DBL Partners, a venture capital firm which specialises in investing in companies and start-ups that offer both rewarding financial returns, and positive social impacts. There have been some serious clean tech companies in DBL’s portfolio, including a pre-IPO investment in Tesla. With this in mind, we spoke to Nancy about how to invest in energy storage wisely and heard her views on the waves of the future. Part 2 to be published tomorrow.
What is expected to be Europe’s largest community battery is set to be installed at an innovative regeneration scheme in Nottingham, England, with a 2MWh Tesla battery to be deployed in September as part of a housing scheme alongside community solar.
