Leclanché and VRB Energy, two providers in very different areas of energy storage, have struck up joint ventures (JVs) intended to assist them in scaling up and hitting new markets, while Ice Energy has netted fresh funding.

Hawaii’s KIUC, the top-ranked US utility in 2017 for energy storage deployment per customer by SEPA (Smart Electric Power Alliance), will pay less than US$0.11 per kWh for power from a new solar-plus-storage facility.

PV manufacturers Hanwha Q Cells and Sunpower have both signed deals to bring home energy storage to residential solar customers in Europe and in the US respectively.

Xcel Energy has filed a plan which would retire two coal plants, add significant capacities of renewables and gas – and deploy 275MW specifically in combination with PV.

California investor-owned utility (IOU) San Diego Gas & Electric (SDG&E) has contracted companies including RES, AMS and Enel Green Power to execute five energy storage projects totalling 85MW / 334MWh in its service area.

The residential energy storage market in the US has just enjoyed one of its biggest growth spurts so far, although action is mostly centred in specific states with supportive policies and conditions.

Utility NV Energy has awarded contracts in the US state of Nevada for over 1,000MW of renewable energy projects – including a 420MW-dc solar farm – and has also requested approval for 100MW of energy storage.

Shell, which has just participated in an investment round for sonnen, is one of the big players in the incumbent energy industry that “really acts” on clean energy, rather than just talking about it, sonnen’s CEO has said.

Arizona utility Salt River Project (SRP) has followed up the recent completion of a 10MW battery storage system at a solar farm by beginning work on its first standalone grid-scale battery energy storage project.