At 4:52pm on Friday 9 August 2019, the UK suffered its first wide-scale blackout in more than a decade. More than 1.1 million consumers were plunged into the dark as rail lines screeched to a halt, traffic lights failed and even airports reported problems. Liam Stoker looks at the root causes, and how battery storage came to the rescue.

The European Commission has approved Britain’s Capacity Market scheme following an in-depth investigation into its state aid compliance.

Energy-Storage.news was delighted to be asked to moderate a session in which participants and pioneers of UK energy storage – and solar – gave their perspectives on everything from the right technologies and what they can do, how financiers view the market today, to how we can all join together to create a modern, clean and sustainable energy sector.

“No other policy in play right now” could be “more immediate or more impactful” than a ‘standalone’ Investment Tax Credit (ITC) in the US for energy storage, the CEO of the national Energy Storage Association has said.

Approval has been given to the compliance plans of two more US RTOs and ISOs to be filed under FERC Order 841, the ruling set by the US Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) designed to open up regional grid operators’ wholesale markets to electricity storage.

While an investigation into a recent fire incident at one of its energy storage facilities remains ongoing, representatives of utility Arizona Public Service (APS) will appear onstage with technology provider Fluence to discuss fire safety at an upcoming event in California.

The Nobel Foundation recognised not only the role of lightweight, portable battery technology for mobile phones, laptops and latterly electric vehicles, but also that it “can also store significant amounts of energy from solar and wind power, making possible a fossil fuel-free society”.

​Britain’s government is set to remove a significant barrier to utility-scale storage projects over 50MW.

Major US utility company Duke Energy has announced the first grid-scale battery energy storage project to be built in the service territory of Duke Carolinas, in Anderson County, South Carolina.

The UK government has confirmed that energy storage systems will be eligible under the UK’s newly unveiled successor policy aimed at supporting the deployment of residential solar in the wake of feed-in tariff cuts, but only if co-located with a participating renewable energy generator.