Power equipment supplier and system integrator Alfen is putting energy storage and EV chargers on a football stadium in its Dutch homeland, while the company is reportedly considering a stock market flotation.

Major Japanese business and government entities have extended their involvement in energy storage with the announcement of the country’s first virtual power plants, an investment in a US frequency regulation project and partnerships on technology.

A distributed smart grid that can “heal” itself in the event of system components failing has energy storage and energy management software at its core, grid-scale system integrator Alfen has said.

Car manufacturer Renault has created a new energy subsidiary which will create smart charging networks, explore vehicle-to-grid (V2G) solutions and utilise second-life EV batteries for stationary energy storage projects.

In Europe the number of e-buses in circulation is far smaller than in China, which accounts for 98% of the world’s fleets. However, the market is entering a period of rapid growth. This comes with significant challenges for batteries, Anil Srivastava of Leclanché writes.

Over €12 million (US$13.18 million) in funding will be provided to two European projects to examine and exploit synergies between the stationary energy storage and transport sectors, through the EU’s Connecting Europe Facility (CEF) funding instrument.

A ‘multi-stakeholder’ approach, where different parties benefit from batteries at different times, could be the key to enabling communities to deploy grid-connected energy storage systems, DNV GL has said.

Battery manufacturer Saft has delivered 80 of its Uptimax nickel battery systems to provide backup power at an E.ON wind farm in the North Sea.