St Eustatius’ Statia Utility Company (STUCO) has welcomed a “user-friendly” hybrid system which enables it to provide enough clean energy to cover more than 23% of the island’s annual electricity demand.
It would be unfair to put the burden of paying for the rollout of smart meters onto German households with PV-plus-storage when the devices would primarily benefit grid operators, trade association BSW Solar has said.
Tucson Electric Power (TEP), a utility in Southern Arizona with around 420,000 customers, has received approval to build two 10MW energy storage systems, including one co-located with solar, from the state’s regulator.
Deploying battery storage at grid level is relatively uncharted territory, but a number of pioneers’ projects are now in the ground. Patrick Leslie and colleagues at RES, which built some of the first wave of storage projects, teases out the key technology, finance and regulatory lessons the industry can learn from these early experiences.
Unsubsidised, commercial solar-plus-storage projects of the type being executed in Puerto Rico could demonstrate how to overcome many of the challenges imminent for the world’s PV markets, according to one company with experience in the field.
Many have predicted 2016 will be the year when energy storage starts to live up to its hype. Andy Colthorpe canvased views from some of the leading figures and companies in the sector on the next developments a market that could help take solar and other renewables to the next level.
The UK remains on track for a big push on energy storage with the latest budget backing changes proposed in a key report and an imminent consultation looking to shake-up the role of network operators.
Korean firm Kokam has supplied two lithium nickel manganese cobalt (NMC) oxide batteries to utility Korea Electric Power Corporation (KEPCO) for frequency regulation on the South Korean grid.
Battery energy storage used on the grid for ancillary services has been gaining momentum ever since the United States changed its frequency regulation markets by introducing a concept known as pay-for-performance. Roger Lin of NEC ES takes a good look at how this space is evolving, as the UK’s National Grid prepares a 200MW tender for enhance frequency response.
News in brief: A battery park in Germany will be capable of restarting the local grid in the event of a blackout, a public square in Haiti will be lit at night with solar energy, and a revived Solarmax will target its new range of storage and inverter solutions at several European markets this year.
