Liam Stoker and Andy Colthorpe return for the August 2020 episode of the Solar Media podcast, reflecting on the biggest news stories from the global solar and energy storage ecosystems.

Powin Energy is delivering equipment and integration services to Rappahannock Electric Cooperative for what is thought to be the first grid-scale battery storage system to be installed by an electric cooperative group in Virginia, US.

Within the US, different jurisdictions are at different points of DER adoption and interconnection: Ravi Subramaniam at IEEE asks commissioners from across the country about the different drivers and dynamics they see.

Lithium iron phosphate (LFP) chemistry batteries’ perceived safety advantage over their ‘rival’ nickel manganese cobalt (NMC) may be overstated and claims to that effect stand in the way of “transparent discussion”, Energy-Storage.news has heard.

Algorithms for the control and optimisation of assets including batteries can be an energy trader’s best friend – nearly all of the time. Aaron Lally, managing partner at UK-based clean tech trading house, VEST Energy, explains why it’s good to know when to switch from automation to human-controlled trading.

Update 21 August 2020: An LS Power representative contacted Energy-Storage.news to provide further information on the Gateway project’s storage capacity.

Key Capture Energy (KCE) will build three large-scale energy storage systems (BESS) to participate in Electricity Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) energy markets, using a “custom solution” based on lithium iron phosphate (LFP) batteries.

A series of smart energy projects in the town of Alice Springs in central Australia could be exemplary to the direction of travel for the energy transition across the country if successful.

“Solar-charged batteries” can help solve California’s energy shortage, with energy storage already playing a small but active role in mitigating the struggle to meet peak energy demand, according to the leadership of two trade associations based in the US state.

Standards, guidance and best practice relating to the installation and deployment of battery storage are often talked about in the industry, and rightly so. What is perhaps less often focused upon, is evaluation of the battery equipment itself before it even leaves the factory. PI Berlin’s Benjamin Sternkopf and Ian Gregory speak about their new lithium cell assessment service.