Roundup: Activist-entrepreneur Danny Kennedy seeks innovative solutions for international showcase, Statoil and Scotland look at batteries for offshore wind, Tesla stops selling 10kWh Powerwall.
Two initiatives have got underway in Europe, one in Germany and the other in Britain, aimed at accelerating battery development for electric vehicles and stationary storage respectively, while vacuum cleaner company Dyson has pledged a US$1.44 billion commitment to batteries – for cordless cleaning devices.
Energy Storage News visited the offices and production facilities of Sunamp, a maker of heat batteries, in East Lothian, Scotland to hear how the systems are made and how they were developed.
Germany-based inverter firm SMA Solar technology has qualified lithium-based energy storage systems from commercial battery system provider Tesvolt for use with SMA’s Sunny Island battery inverter.
German utility E.On recently joined forces with German PV module and storage manufacturer Solarwatt. Energy Storage News catches up with Felix Brauer, training coordinator at SolarWatt, to discuss the partnership in detail and the benefits of a DC-coupled battery system.
German solar integration specialist Belectric has begun serial production of its ‘Energy Buffer Unit’ (EBU) battery system.
UK manufacturers and distributors are offering many different forms of training in energy storage installation for residential and small commercial level all over the country, in expectation that solar installers will want to add energy storage to their product ranges and skillsets.
Power conversion technology developer Ideal Power announced that it has signed off on a Master Purchase Agreement with Powin Corporation — a provider of commercial and industrial energy storage systems — to supply its 30kW and 125kW power conversion systems for Powin’s selection of commercial battery energy storage systems.
Lichtblick, a retailer of ‘green electricity and green gas’ headquartered in Germany, is looking to take its concept for integrating multiple distributed generation sources into a single network into international markets.
The UK looks set for the arrival of energy storage in a big way this year. While these companies and their battery chemistries are fighting it out for both market share and brand awareness, several energy storage systems have been deployed already on a commercial basis using a more novel storage technology – the saltwater battery.
