Nissan and Eaton have opened pre-orders for the xStorage Home portfolio in the UK, Norway and Germany as the partnership looks to make a splash in these residential storage markets.

Major utility Steag and Nidec ASI, formerly known as Ansaldo Sistemi Industriali, have inaugurated a 90MW energy storage system in Germany, in what is the largest installation of its kind.

Power conversion specialist Ideal Power has received an order for 0.5MW of its 30kW power conversion systems (PCS) for commercial energy storage projects in Germany, from an unnamed customer or customers.

German inverter manufacturer SMA and Korean battery maker LG Chem have teamed up to offer a residential solar storage solution in Europe and Australia from December 2016 onward.

The energy storage business of German auto manufacturer Mercedes-Benz is expanding to the US market starting early 2017.

Energy storage systems from Mercedes-Benz will be supplied with batteries manufactured at an expanded plant in Germany which the company has just announced, but has declined to reveal the production capacity.

Berlin-based energy storage firm Younicos and German utility WEMAG have started work on expanding the storage capacity of a battery park in Schwerin, Germany, from 5MW to 10MW power output and 5MWh to 14.5MWh capacity.

RWE International SE (innogy), a leading European energy company, has signed a share purchase agreement to takeover German solar and energy storage specialist Belectric.

New research predicts the energy storage market in Germany will increase 11-fold in the next five years, with the residential market buoyed by declining feed-in tariffs, high electricity prices and €30 million in subsidies, while the primary reserve market boosts activity within the utilities sector.

The US must open up access to its grid and allow anyone who generates electricity to sell it on, according to an executive from energy storage company sonnen.