While lithium-ion batteries get most of the headlines, long-duration solutions of various types are gaining ground. Alice Grundy and Andy Colthorpe profile some of the established and emerging concepts in this increasingly important field.

Softbank Group’s SB Energy subsidiary is among investors that contributed to a successful US$30 million Series C funding round for ESS Inc, a US-headquartered manufacturer of iron flow batteries that use a proprietary saltwater electrolyte.

A solar-plus-storage project in Brazil trialling different batteries, a 22MW solar farm with 2.4MW of battery storage in Senegal and NGK Insulators’ recent, huge project using sodium sulfur batteries in Abu Dhabi are among the nominees in this year’s Solar & Storage Live Awards: International project category.

US chemistry firm and redox flow battery company to work together to improve competitiveness of the energy storage technology.

The development of systems capable of storing over six hours of energy economically is being supported in New York with an Innovation Challenge launched by the New York Power Authority (NYPA) and Urban Future Lab, a cleantech innovation centre.

Pivot Power will collaborate with manufacturer and system integrator redT on what is claimed to be the world’s first grid-scale hybrid battery energy storage project to use a combination of lithium-ion and vanadium technologies.

Constant Energy signs MoU with Siam Cement Group (SCG Cement), to deploy 50MW of C&I solar PV plants, with the company chief planning for an energy storage component on many of the projects.

Sodium sulfur (NAS) batteries produced by Japan’s NGK Insulators are being put into use on a massive scale in Abu Dhabi, the capital of the United Arab Emirates.

A smart grid pilot will be put into action in the Thai province of Mae Hong Son, to integrate and balance growing shares of renewable energy using battery energy storage systems (BESS).