More than two-thirds of the population of sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) is still without electricity, with the figure rising to more than 85% in rural areas. Andrew Jones of S&C Electric looks at how energy storage could play a crucial role in realising the continent’s solar potential.

Bosch looks likely to become the latest big name to participate in a government-funded micro-grid trial, with the company proposed to receive almost US$3 million from California’s energy policy planning agency.

Lithium-ion (Li-ion) batteries accounted for 90% of all proposed grid storage projects in 2014, according to a new study by Lux Research.

Andy Colthorpe met Enphase vice president of products and strategic initiatives, Raghu Belur at PV Expo in Tokyo last week. The company’s co-founder explained why he felt Enphase will offer the market a reinvention of behind the meter home energy storage, specific criteria for differentiating energy storage products and what made Japanese battery vendor Eliiy Power the right fit for the Energy Management System.

Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO), one of Japan’s major electric utility and transmission providers, will conduct a microgrid demonstration project on a remote Japanese island, incorporating solar, storage, wind and diesel.

UK PV installer Martin Cotterell argues that the renewables industry needs something in place to make sure that battery systems are sold appropriately; for instance, there is the potential for customers to get charged extra for a battery ‘add-on’ that doesn’t really give them a whole lot of benefit.

An ‘electricity trading’ scheme to be launched by Reposit Power in Australia for residential energy storage system owners has been described by an analyst as “one of the most interesting examples” of software as a differentiator in the energy storage marketplace.

Energy storage and microgrid software specialist Geli Energy and storage system maker Imergy Power Systems will collaborate on a California Energy Commission-funded microgrid project which could save a college district US$75,000 a year in energy bills.

It is sometimes said that as of today there is no business case which delivers economic viability for decentralised residential battery storage systems owned by private end customers- without subsidy programmes- or they propose other solutions which offer higher benefits. Despite the discussion, the market already offers a variety of storage solutions which seem to be well accepted by the end-customer. Volker Wachenfeld of SMA explains the contrast.

EOS Energy Storage has placed an order totalling more than 1MW from NASDAQ-listed power converter specialist Ideal Power, while both companies have launched new products since the start of the year.