Islands around the world provide ideal conditions for trialling new approaches to energy provision. David Pratt reports on some of the work going on globally to bring the benefits of cutting-edge renewable energy, storage and smart grid technologies to the world’s geographically isolated communities. To be continued later this week on Energy-Storage.news.

A European consortium is to test the use of long duration storage flow machine technology with a large scale tidal energy project planned for the UK later this year.

Australia’s biggest utility AGL, which has committed to phasing out coal by 2050, has said it is likely to replace the capacity provided by one ageing power station with batteries, peaking plants, demand response and pumped hydro.

Ontario’s successes in creating and fostering a market and industry for energy storage owes a lot to policy makers taking a coherent, long-term view of its entire energy sector, according to a representative of Canada’s only energy storage trade association.

Thin-film PV manufacturer and project developer First Solar is among the investors in a US$50 million funding round for grid-scale storage specialist Younicos, with the money raised set to fuel the latter’s expansion.

James P McDougall, CEO of Younicos blogs on the possibilities of establishing a solar-oriented baseload – and why his company is convinced of the scaling potential of utility-scale batteries.

Just 3–4% of electricity generated by utilities globally is stored today, according to the International Energy Agency. This is despite the fact that storage can help overcome the energy ‘trilemma’ of curbing rising energy prices, the need to ensure the security of supply and creating a low carbon economy. So, what’s the hold-up? Taking the UK as his starting point but with lessons transferrable to other regions, Roger Lin of NEC Energy Solutions explains and counters some of the myths that stand in its way.