Hawaii has been a prolific installer of both rooftop solar and latterly batteries for energy storage and one of the US state’s smaller islands looks set to get its first ever grid-scale solar-plus-storage system.
A modestly-sized grid-scale battery will be installed at a natural gas plant in Queensland, Australia, boosting the efficiency of the existing power station and providing emergency backup, as well as helping integrate local renewable energy.
Britain’s transmission system operator National Grid has confirmed it will roll out the use of its Ancillary Services Dispatch Platform (ASDP) to a number of services over the next year following the successful dispatch of fast reserve using battery storage last month.
Minnesota electric cooperative Connexus Energy has confirmed recent press reports that it is building 15MW / 30MWh of battery energy storage, while another not-for-profit, Vermont Electric Cooperative, will build a 1.9MW / 5.3MWh system in its service area.
Tim Humpage, head of EPC at British Solar Renewables, discusses some of the key ‘ingredients’ to his company’s work on the 49.9MW Pelham battery, completed on behalf of Statera Energy late last year.
Automotive Energy Supply Corporation (AESC) and NEC Energy Devices, the Nissan Motor Co’s electric battery business jointly operated with NEC Corporation, and NEC Corporation’s own lithium-ion battery business respectively, have been sold to China’s Envision.
Islands around the world provide ideal conditions for trialling new approaches to energy provision. David Pratt reports on how cutting-edge renewable energy, storage and smart grid technologies are being rolled out to geographically isolated communities. Part 2 of this feature article continues with a look at how some of these projects could provide real-time lessons for the global clean energy transition.
