The emerging availability of storage and smart-grid technologies allows communities to meet their energy demands locally. As Andrew Jones of S&C Electric writes, community-owned micro-grids will become an increasingly important element of the future energy system.

A boom in the use of electric vehicles will help push the energy storage market to US$50 billion by 2020, a study by Lux Research has concluded.

After a strong showing in the energy storage segment at its European counterpart in June, Intersolar North America is following suit with a number of companies and organisations launching new products at the show.

The deployment of solar storage units in German is set to boom over the next few years in what has been hailed a “quiet revolution” for the PV industry.

The annual energy capacity of batteries used in utility-scale applications will be seen to increase by a factor of more than 100 between now and 2023, according to a new report published by US analysis firm Navigant Research.

Over two-thirds of German PV installers are now offering their customers energy storage options, while their British and Italian counterparts are beginning to follow suit, according to a new report from EuPD Research.

The Rocky Mountain Institute has published a report which claims it could be possible, using PV coupled with storage, for portions of the USA to “defect” away from using grid networks entirely by 2030.

The utility-scale energy storage market will exceed US$2.5 billion in revenue by the year 2023, according to forecasting by Navigant Research, the research arm of consultancy Navigant.

Nuclear and renewable energy technology engineer, Areva has teamed up with renewables energy generator and distributor, Schneider Electric.

Neither commercial-scale nor energy storage have yet take off in the US. But as Felicity Carus reports, this could be about change as companies eye opportunities in both segments.