Vertically-integrated solar PV company Canadian Solar is co-developing 1.5GW of battery storage projects in the UK, extending a partnership with developer Windel Energy.

The UK will exempt clean energy technologies from business rate rises while tenders for large-scale renewables will allow bids to include generation projects colocated with energy storage. 

This edition of news in brief in energy storage comes from a busy week in the UK.

Utility Public Service Company of New Mexico’s (PNM) plan to procure energy from 950MW of solar and storage facilities by 2022 and replace its retiring 562MW San Juan Generating Station coal plant has been handed a boost.  

A battery energy storage system paired with a new solar project will be installed at an off-grid mine in the Australian state of Queensland to help the site reduce diesel use.

EDF battery storage asset in England has been sold alongside its combined cycle gas turbine (CCGT) power station, to institutional investor EIG.

The cost of battery energy storage in the US fell by 72% between 2015 and 2019 and utilities in the country are set to bring 10,000MW of new grid-connected capacity online in the next two years. 

The pipeline for utility-scale battery storage in the UK has been continually increasing and is now over 20GW across more than 800 projects. A recent surge in submitted applications for battery storage has led to a record breaking quarterly submitted capacity for Q2’21.

NTPC, an independent power producer (IPP) in India with over 65GW of power plants across the country wants to install 1,000MWh of energy storage at its existing generation facilities.

Hybrid renewables are playing a strategic role in accelerating the decarbonisation of power generation and supporting the Paris Agreement and the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), as well as supporting the UK’s net zero by 2050 ambition and its interim emissions reduction of 78% by 2035. Consultant Peter Lo of ITPEnergised discusses the UK’s emergence into the hybrid energy sector and how it is better for our planet, better in the economics and better for offtake.