Speakers at Energy Storage Europe were confident, despite a few reservations, that Germany’s new government which grants Chancellor Angela Merkel a fourth term in office will be good for the environment and for renewable energy.
The former head of the German Green Party, Dr Simone Peter, has said that the Energiewende (‘Energy Transition’) is in its second phase, and now requires more ‘sector coupling’ between electricity, heat and transport sectors.
At this week’s Energy Storage Europe event, Energy-Storage.News heard from German politician Thorsten Herdan that strong cooperation with other countries in Europe is vital for creating smarter, reliable and cost-effective energy networks.
US utility Florida Light & Power (FPL) has followed up the US’ first DC-coupled grid-scale battery system with the announcement of a solar-plus-storage project pairing 10MW / 40MWh of energy storage with an existing 74.5MW PV plant.
Chinese inverter manufacturer Sungrow has leaned on its joint venture with Samsung SDI to supply both inverters and lithium batteries to a large-scale energy storage project in Japan.
India-based solar manufacturer and EPC player Vikram Solar has signed a collaboration agreement with the French Alternative Energies and Atomic Energy Commission (CEA), while at the founding ceremony of the International Solar Alliance (ISA).
Utility Enel has been offering the reward of collaboration and testing agreements to “new technologies, architectures and control strategies” that maximise the value and effectiveness of energy storage.
Consultancy and engineering firm Pöyry has been chosen to operate energy storage systems as part of a ‘cleantech showcase’ project, creating smart energy systems upon a cluster of Finnish islands.
Dr Rahul Walawalkar is president and MD of Customized Energy Solutions and an executive director of the India Energy Storage Alliance. A proud evangelist for renewables and advanced energy storage technologies, Andy Colthorpe asked him about what 2017 meant for India’s storage industry and what’s getting him enthused – or apprehensive – about 2018.
