The US Navy plans to develop a utility-scale solar farm and energy storage system on the 863.6 hectare Pacific Missile Range Facility on the island of Kauai, Hawaii, according to a draft environmental assessment.
Last year was a “seminal year” for energy storage, where the technology moved from “dream to reality”, according to impact investor Nancy Pfund, one of the earliest backers to Tesla and SolarCity.
There is a significant opportunity for energy storage under the Trump administration, the US Energy Storage Association has said.
Financial services giant Morgan Stanley has anticipated that the US energy storage market will grow faster than current consensus expectations, while Deloitte has earmarked the technology for exponential growth – although not perhaps this year.
To widen the access for solar to low-income utility customers, non-profit solar organisation GRID Alternatives and PV microinverter producer Enphase Energy have partnered to launch a new solar-plus-storage project in California for up to 50 customers.
Industry insiders have criticised a lack of encouragement for green energy projects after battery storage won just over 10MW of combined capacity in the latest capacity market auction, well down on the success enjoyed by the technology in December’s T-4 bidding process.
Australia will launch a new large-scale energy storage funding round, the country’s prime minister Malcolm Turnbull has revealed.
While Brexit – the impending departure of the UK from the European Union – looms, bringing uncertainty into the country’s economy and international relationships, the role energy storage will play in a decentralised, low(er) carbon and more flexible energy system at least seems a little more assured than it did before.
Another energy storage system project expedited to meet the resource adequacy requirements of a California utility following the Aliso Canyon gas leak has been completed, Powin Corporation has announced.
