The July 2021 episode of the Solar Media Podcast, sponsored by Honeywell, is now available to stream, as we delve into everything you need to know about recent polysilicon trade sanctions in the US.

Electric school buses in the US could be turned into a virtual power plant (VPP) resource, through a new partnership between student transport supplier Zum Services and artificial intelligence-driven distributed energy software company AutoGrid.

Regulatory approval has been given for a 100MW / 400MWh battery energy storage system (BESS) facility which will be sited on land formerly occupied by a natural gas and oil-fired power plant which had been described as one of New York’s biggest sources of pollution.

Vertically integrated solar PV company SunPower and residential battery storage provider sonnen have each started up programmes to deploy solar-plus-storage for communities in California and New York respectively.

The National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) in the US has forecast dramatic cost reduction trends for battery energy storage to continue on a rapid trajectory to 2030 with reductions continuing at a slower pace through to 2050.

Tesla Energy has begun an initiative to install its V3 solar roof tiles and Powerwall 2 residential battery storage systems for what has been dubbed a “solar neighbourhood” at homes in a new development in Austin, Texas.

Two startups seeking to disrupt the energy sector with novel long-duration energy storage technologies have formed partnerships with established industry players.

New York Governor Andrew Cuomo has said the state is “exploring every resource available as a potential tool to address climate change,” as funding was announced for long-duration energy storage technologies along with investigation on the role of green hydrogen in decarbonisation.

Germany-headquartered multi-national renewable energy project developer Baywa r.e. has signed a long-term power purchase agreement (PPA) for a utility-scale solar-plus-storage project in California with San Diego Community Power (SDCP).

Talen Energy, a US independent power producer (IPP) with a 13GW portfolio of generation assets, has contracted energy storage developer Key Capture Energy to install a battery storage system at the site of a coal power plant in Maryland.