Last year was a “seminal year” for energy storage, where the technology moved from “dream to reality”, according to impact investor Nancy Pfund, one of the earliest backers to Tesla and SolarCity.
Financial services giant Morgan Stanley has anticipated that the US energy storage market will grow faster than current consensus expectations, while Deloitte has earmarked the technology for exponential growth – although not perhaps this year.
Listed funds in the UK which own a significant portion of the country’s utility-scale solar PV assets are not currently convinced by battery storage’s feasibility, but remain primed to deploy the technology at scale when the time is right.
Project funding for energy storage jumped to US$820 million in 2016 from just US$30 million in 2015, while Sonnen was revealed as the energy storage company to raise the most VC funding this year.
A corporate venture fund set up by oil and gas company Statoil has invested in North American energy storage developer Convergent Energy + Power.
An open fund for solar energy and energy storage in various emerging markets has been launched by Franck Constant, the co-founder of Sonnedix Group and director of Sithe Pacific, Energy-Storage.News’ sister site PV Tech revealed today.
The Australian Renewable Energy Association (ARENA) has partnered with the Institute for Sustainable Futures (ISF) in conducting a trail on more than 150 households in New South Wales and Victoria to test how smart inverters can enhance residential solar-plus-storage systems and improve the stability of electricity on the grid.
As the long-awaited call for evidence (CfE) on the future of the UK’s smart power policy gets ever closer, David Pratt outlines the five key areas the UK government is seeking to address in the upcoming document.
