News in brief: Germany’s tiny renewable energy village gets biggest battery; Tesla-backers invest in Kazakh-bound Primus Power and industry partners match US$2 million grant for California distributed resources trial.
Later this year, the 21st annual session of the Conference of the Parties (COP 21) will take place in Paris. Leaders from around the world are coming together with an overarching goal of creating a deal to support the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions to limit the global temperature increase to 2°C above pre-industrial levels. Key to the reduction of global carbon emissions is the transformation of our energy networks, by adopting cleaner, more efficient and smarter technologies, writes Andrew Jones.
After dropping a series of strong hints – including those given in interviews with PV Tech Storage – Enphase has confirmed that its AC battery will be launched in Australia first.
Adobe is among the participants earning revenues from what is claimed to be an energy storage industry first – a trial rewarding California storage system users for conferring benefits to the grid.
The UK’s Electricity Storage Network advocates and educates for a better understanding of the issues surrounding various storage technologies, and how they can be among a number of resources to help balance the country’s energy networks. The ESN’s Dr Jill Cainey, a research scientist with a background in atmospheric science and climate change, was among attendees to a recent round table discussion hosted by the Energy Storage division of PV Tech Storage’s publisher, Solar Media.
Tom Tipple, regional VP for Imergy Power Systems, a flow battery maker headquartered in Fremont, California, recently visited the PV Tech Storage offices to share his thoughts on the global market for energy storage.
On a visit to heat battery maker Sunamp’s office, Scotland’s energy minister Fergus Ewing outlined aims to collaborate with his counterparts in England, Wales and Northern Ireland on nationwide storage strategy, while Sunamp CEO Andrew Bissel says greater understanding of heat source batteries is needed for the technology to be included.
Andy Colthorpe speaks to Matt Roberts of the Washington-based Energy Storage Association about topics including real-world applications of tech straight from the lab, why he dislikes subsidies and the group’s technical conference, happening later this month.
Tesla’s much-hyped battery announcement in April raised important questions over what business models will drive the deployment of stationary battery storage. As Andy Colthorpe reports, one answer is the virtual power plant, in which residential and commercial battery systems are aggregated to provide grid services.
The latest claimant to the crown of ‘largest flow battery installation in North America and Europe’ has emerged, with the award of a 2MW project in Canada to US manufacturer Vizn Energy.
