The UK’s “greenest electricity supplier” will launch trial units of its own residential energy storage system this year, with the potential to reignite an ongoing and acrimonious rivalry with Tesla.

Utility-scale solar projects in a region of Japan affected by fears of grid capacity constraints have been supplied with energy storage, aimed at mitigating the potential effects of output curtailment.

While the effectiveness of flow batteries in islanded situations is quickly being recognised, on the grid, the cost of providing that storage is still seen as something of an inhibitor to uptake. Andy Colthorpe spoke with the RedT CEO, Scott McGregor, to get his views on how flow batteries can thrive – and why lithium-ion is not the enemy.

Mercom Capital Group’s Q1 2016 report reveals 50% drop in VC funding for battery and storage companies compared to last quarter’s figures.

Roundup: A third of US PV installers offer storage and 26% more could join them this year, China’s BYD signs up with UAE’s Masdar, Sunvault and Aboriginal Power’s ‘self-sustaining’ community project.

Deploying battery storage at grid level is relatively uncharted territory, but a number of pioneers’ projects are now in the ground. Patrick Leslie and colleagues at RES, which built some of the first wave of storage projects, teases out the key technology, finance and regulatory lessons the industry can learn from these early experiences.

PV inverter manufacturer Sungrow is partnering with renewable energy storage system market leader Samsung SDI to perform demonstrative energy storage projects in China.

The output of a 16MW solar farm in Puerto Rico will be tied to an Aquion ‘saltwater’ battery, in one of the few current trials of moving solar power produced in the daytime to be used at night.

Sharp has launched its latest home energy storage systems in Japan, with features geared towards meeting changes in the electricity market that are underway in the country.

After claiming that interest in Powerwall and Powerpack was “overwhelming” and “crazy” seven months before the first commercial installations began, Tesla CEO Elon Musk announced that close to 400,000 people have reserved a Model 3, due out next year. Andy Colthorpe asks how much Tesla’s overall success in its stated mission to accelerate the transition to clean energy is pinned to a successful roll-out from the Gigafactory for the car.