Over the last thousand days, project partners from all walks of life in the energy sector have come together to deliver Europe’s largest commercial energy storage system using second life and new battery modules. Energy.Sorage-News attended the launch at Amsterdam’s Johan Cruyff ArenA to find out what the project has to offer.

Softbank Energy and Kyocera, two major names in Japan’s solar energy industry, are partnering with utilities, grid operators and other stakeholders to execute virtual power plant (VPP) projects backed by the government.

Germany’s sonnen introduced a scheme a while back in which customers pay a flat, reduced rate for their electricity each month while the company aggregate their batteries together to benefit the grid – and now the offer has been extended to electric vehicle owners.

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.

The sale of an NEC Corporation business division involved in manufacturing lithium-ion batteries will have no material impact on the group’s activities in energy storage, according to a company spokesman.

Earlier this week the UK government and energy regulator Ofgem published a strategy for a modernised, smart and flexible power system, the result of an eagerly anticipated response to last year’s Smart Power Call for Evidence. Liam Stoker takes a deep dive to examine the implications for solar and energy storage of this major undertaking.

Another 500MW of energy storage procurement targets have been bestowed onto California’s three main investor-owned utilities by the state’s Public Utilities’ Commission (PUC), on top of an existing 1.325GW mandate.

A new project is set to test the feasibility of turning a UK car park into a MW-scale battery to provide power on demand to the electricity grid from electric vehicles.

This special supplement on energy storage looks at a global market which has already come a long way and shows no sign of looking back. From residential to grid-scale, to microgrids and vehicle-to-grid, from safety to finance, we’ve condensed some of the biggest topics and themes into a handy collection which we hope will help illuminate and inform you all. Energy storage is growing into a cornerstone of the grid (and is arguably even more important off-grid); a vital component of decentralised, decarbonised and even digitalised future energy systems. Yet so many misconceptions and concerns remain and there is still so much work to be done in helping stakeholders gain a better understanding of what batteries – and other forms of energy storage – can do.