Clean energy firm Holaluz has completed Spain’s first shared self-consumption solar PV and battery storage facility on a house near Barcelona.

In the UK, a new, quarter of a billion-pound innovation competition for batteries has been launched, while plans for overhaul of the energy sector promising a “determined, joined-up, far-sighted and deliberate approach from government” appear to have been met with relish by the industry. Consultant Robert Ede goes beyond headlines to look at what this might really mean in practical terms.

Interest in energy storage in the Middle East is ‘ramping up significantly’, as we reported last week in an extract from this interview with IHS Markit analyst Julian Jansen. His firm is forecasting 1.8GW of energy storage for the region by 2025 – from an installed base of next-to-nothing today. Jansen talked us through some of the drivers, market dynamics and the general picture of what we might see developing.

Distribution network operator (DNO) UK Power Networks (UKPN) has launched a new fast-track application process for small scale electricity storage just days after Britain’s government solidified its support for the technology with funding allocations and new regulatory proposals.

There is increasing high-level interest in the potential for energy storage in the Middle East, with grid-connected systems forecast to reach 1.8GW in the region by 2025, according to I.H.S Markit.

Earlier this week the UK government and energy regulator Ofgem published a strategy for a modernised, smart and flexible power system, the result of an eagerly anticipated response to last year’s Smart Power Call for Evidence. Liam Stoker takes a deep dive to examine the implications for solar and energy storage of this major undertaking.

The British government Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) and energy regulator Ofgem have today released plans for a major upgrade of the UK’s energy system, while a separate huge funding opportunity for battery innovation has been broadly welcomed by industry.

On the back of rapidly decreasing costs for energy storage and solar photovoltaics (PV), consumers wishing to achieve a low-cost and reliable supply of power are considering grid defection—or at least, partial grid-defection—as an increasingly attractive alternative. Julian Jansen, analyst at IHS looks at the economics of grid defection in Europe today and in the future – and how its proliferation could impact the energy industry as a whole.

The provincial government of New South Wales has published a guide for consumers on residential solar-plus-storage.

Despite a bill to create a rebate programme for energy storage systems purchased in California being dropped from a recent round of legislative decision-making, the state’s industry still has a “bright future”, commentators have said.