While 2020 may have been and gone, the strange times we’re collectively experiencing certainly have not. Looking back at least gives us an opportunity to reflect on the lessons learned during the past year or so and Aaroh Kharaya, product manager at solar PV and battery storage quality assurance, supply chain management and engineering services firm takes us through his top takeaways from a time that we may otherwise seek to forget.

Equity investors have already committed more than US$300 million to lithium battery recycler Li-Cycle’s plan to go publicly-listed through a special purpose acquisition company (SPAC) merger.

South African vanadium producer Bushveld Minerals is investing US$7.5 million in vanadium redox flow battery (VRFB) energy storage company Enerox, which is planning to scale up its manufacturing capabilities.

While it is better known for putting lithium-ion batteries in phones, tablets and computers, consumer technology company Apple said it is building a 240MWh battery energy storage system (BESS) at a solar PV plant in California.

At the Energy Storage Summit US, a panel of experts discussed the impact of the ITC on the uptake of co-located assets, but also the challenges of operating within its framework.

Funding secured from its main shareholder group will help vertically-integrated energy storage company Leclanché push forward activities in its stationary storage business, CEO Anil Srivastava has said.

Battery storage systems have been proven to be “extremely lucrative” for commercial and industrial (C&I) customers in the US, but a lack of customer knowledge of regulations and supply shortages of battery cells could yet stymie the market’s growth.

While interconnection queues for America’s electric transmission and distribution operators are “swelling up” with growing numbers of energy storage projects, some of the big challenges ahead include enabling fair market participation for both standalone storage and storage paired with generation.

Energy-Storage.news was delighted to host a sponsored webinar with Honeywell Process Solutions on solving some of the biggest challenges and answering the most important questions facing energy storage today.

A pumped hydro energy storage (PHES) project at a former gold mine in Queensland, Australia which would be able to store 250MW of power for up to eight hours has raised significant funding in the past few days.