This year’s Intersolar Europe event in Munich will have an area dedicated energy storage. As the event gets underway, Andy Colthorpe spoke to Bryan Ekus of the International Battery and Energy Storage Alliance to get his views on an increasingly important technology.
The deployment of solar storage units in German is set to boom over the next few years in what has been hailed a “quiet revolution” for the PV industry.
Some home energy storage systems, such as those increasingly used with PV, have potential safety flaws that could lead to an increased risk of fire, according to a study by German researchers.
In the year that has passed since Germany began offering subsidies for lithium-ion battery systems for residential use, around 4,000 solar-plus-batteries have been installed, the country’s Federal Solar Industry Association (BSW Solar) has announced.
Swiss inverter manufacturer, SolarMax, is to launch a range of PV self-consumption and storage technologies at Intersolar Europe next month.
SolarCity looks likely to resume its programme of deploying residential energy storage systems in California, following a preliminary ruling by the state’s Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) appeared to rule in the company’s favour.
Representatives of battery and energy storage companies including AES Corporation and FIAMM believe the priority for the nascent energy storage industry should be to standardise technologies, along with developing a regulatory framework that recognises the value of storage.
NEC Corporation has commissioned a 2MWh lithium-ion battery energy storage system designed to ease the integration of renewable energy into the grid for Italian distribution system operator (DSO) Enel Distribuzione.
Japan has launched a subsidy programme to support the installation of lithium-ion battery-based stationary storage systems, offering to pay individuals and entities up to two-thirds of their purchase price.
The Rocky Mountain Institute has published a report which claims it could be possible, using PV coupled with storage, for portions of the USA to “defect” away from using grid networks entirely by 2030.
