A new solar-plus-storage division is to be launched by DNV GL, the expert advisory group and certification body announced at Intersolar Europe on Wednesday.

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.

Grid storage and distributed energy technologies overseen by the Advanced Research Projects Agency – Energy (ARPA-E) in the US will be accredited by technical advisory service DNV GL for the next four years.

TÜV SÜD has developed a certificate for renewable energy storage systems (RESS), which the testing house claims will “provide reliable information on the safety, performance and service life of stationary energy storage systems”.

Certification for safety and other technical standards must become uniform in the market for residential energy storage systems which can combine with PV systems, according to an expert at technological research institute Fraunhofer ISE.