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.

British government minister Greg Clark today unveiled the first phase of a £246 million (US$320 million) investment in battery technology with the launch of the Faraday Challenge, designed to boost research and development and position the UK at the forefront of energy storage.

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.

India’s first major large-scale solar-plus-storage tenders, tied with solar parks, have been cancelled by the Solar Energy Corporation of India (SECI).

The Energy Storage Association (ESA) unveiled a new document this month that offers a number of state policy suggestions designed to spur cost-effective energy storage across the US.

UK-based PV company Solarcentury is collaborating with the EU and United Nations Development Program (UNDP) on a €5.7 million (US$6.56 million) electrification project in East Africa.

UK-based renewable energy company BBOXX announced Monday that it met with Faure Gnassingbé, the President of the Republic of Togo, to discuss the “CIZO” presidential initiative.

Market conditions are “artificially” restricting energy storage batteries from “leveraging and maximising their multiple capabilities” a US trade group which includes utilities, technology and service providers and grid operators among its membership has argued.