SolarCity looks likely to resume its programme of deploying residential energy storage systems in California, following a preliminary ruling by the state’s Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) appeared to rule in the company’s favour.
Fees being charged to interconnect residential storage systems to the grid in California are “arbitrary” and “punitive”, while some may even be illegal, according to US installer SolarCity.
Electrical storage has been much hyped as a key technology in the ongoing deployment of solar. But as Andy Colthorpe reports, with take-up of the technology so far only patchy, the coming year will be a crucial one for storage to prove its worth.