Although different energy storage technologies are often thought of as in competition with each other, it’s a case of all-hands-on-deck if we are to achieve deployment targets.

A number of core challenges remain for lenders in the energy storage market, not least the relative nascency of it.

Pandemic-related supply chain issues for lithium battery materials hitting the energy storage space are just “bumps in the road” for the sector, and the supply chain will “come out stronger because of it”.

Standalone storage, demand from commercial and industrial (C&I) customers and new types of grid services will increasingly help drive growth in energy storage in the coming years, but the future mix between battery-based and alternative storage types is still unclear.

Investors are becoming increasingly comfortable with energy storage as an asset class but numerous regulatory and market design hurdles remain across European markets.

The first awards of funding designed to “turbocharge” UK projects developing long-duration energy storage technologies have been made by the country’s government, with £6.7 million (US$9.11 million) pledged. 

Creating a wider ecosystem of services and software is essential for system integrators to stay ahead, according to Julian Jansen at Fluence.

Asia-Pacific will overtake North America as the biggest utility-scale energy storage (UES) market by annual installed gigawatts (GW) by 2024-2025, according to a new report by Guidehouse Insights, one to two years later than in the firm’s previous forecasts.

Enel X, one of the winners of contracts tendered by Italy’s transmission operator to provide fast response frequency reserve to the grid, has contracted Fluence to supply two battery energy storage system (BESS) solutions.