The UK’s main electricity transmission network operator (TNO) National Grid has published a new consultation on its system needs and product strategy which paves the way for a number of new services tenders to be made available from next year.

Giants of the UK energy sector are to work within a new collaborative group aimed at enabling significant cost reductions for the electricity system through the use of energy storage applications.

Dr Matthias Vetter, head of department for electrical energy storage at the testing institute Fraunhofer ISE on educating investors, the prospects for 2nd life batteries and the impact of thermal management on project lifetimes.

Hybrid systems combining the complementary aspects of more than one technology could “change the energy storage landscape”, with 2.1GW predicted for deployment in less than 10 years, according to a report from Navigant Research.

The US Trade and Development Agency (USTDA) has put out a tender request for a 25MW hybrid solar-diesel-storage project in Sierra Leone.

India’s first grid-scale solar-plus-storage tender has been held up by the extreme drop in the country’s solar PV prices this year, according to Rahul Walawalkar, executive director of the Indian Energy Storage Alliance.

With the UK’s Renewables Obligation now closed for large solar projects, energy storage takes the position of the most active sector in the UK energy market. As with any new technology, we have seen a lot of build up over the past few years, with much speculation about when the utility-scale market will take off, and how big it will be. Analyst Lauren Cook takes a deep dive.

Energy storage in the US has just enjoyed its greatest quarter for megawatt-hours deployed, up almost 1000% from the equivalent period last year, installing 233.7MWh.

The key value propositions for commercial energy storage are based around “maximising economics subject to operating constraints”, according to Stem and other energy storage system integrators and operators.

Austin Energy, a publicly-owned electric utility in Texas, is delivering megawatt-scale storage systems as part of the US Department of Energy’s Sustainable and Holistic Integration of Energy Storage and Solar PV (SHINES) project.