A planned commercial and industrial (C&I) energy storage project in England could increase onsite solar consumption to the point that no power will be drawn from the grid on some days of the year.

Zola Energy, one of two US-headquartered providers of off-grid solar-plus-storage solutions to the African continent profiled in Energy-Storage.news’ recent Global Storage Opportunity 2018 report, has obtained US$20 million debt financing.

Islands around the world provide ideal conditions for trialling new approaches to energy provision. David Pratt reports on some of the work going on globally to bring the benefits of cutting-edge renewable energy, storage and smart grid technologies to the world’s geographically isolated communities. To be continued later this week on Energy-Storage.news.

VC funding for battery energy storage companies in the first half of this year has already exceeded 2016’s total and looks on the way to bettering 2017, with US$539 million raised across 29 deals.

India’s Goods and Services Tax (GST), a single tax applicable across the whole of the country, will be lowered for lithium-ion batteries by 10%, in a move which has been welcomed by the India Energy Storage Alliance (IESA).

Long duration energy storage will be put to use in Germany’s grid, with RedT, a UK-headquartered maker of flow energy storage ‘machines’, announcing an initial 80MWh deployment to the country.

Investment into the Ontario market for commercial energy storage has received another big boost, with US energy storage provider Stem Inc announcing today a significant cash injection from the Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan group.

A 48MW grid-scale battery project looks to be under development at an unnamed location in the Philippines, local news outlets have reported.

UK renewable electricity supplier Solo Energy is set to launch a ‘free battery’ business model to UK homeowners after a successful pilot on the remote Scottish islands of Orkney.

Currently attracting developers and investment alike, the opportunity to reduce energy costs for businesses in Ontario has led to an agreement for another 42MWh of energy storage from project developer NRStor and solutions provider IHI Inc.