Trina Best, the energy storage company begun as part of Trina Solar but now a separate entity in its own right, wants to go public by 2020 and has not ruled out building its own battery cell production facilities in future.

News in brief: Korea’s main utility and Samsung SDI have overseas markets in their sights, Leclanché subsidiary targets US and Canada, UK lead acid maker moves to Li-Ion with new crowdfund drive.

Through a brief history of batteries and some findings from his own team’s work, Volker Wachenfeld of SMA Solar Technology answers a frequently asked question in energy storage; how can compatibility with the existing variety of batteries in the market be put into practice?

Trojan Battery, manufacturer of deep-cycle lead acid batteries, has announced that it is expanding its research and development capabilities with a new facility in Sligo, Ireland.

S&C Electric Europe has used locally-sourced lead acid batteries combined with 80W solar panels to provide electricity for two primary schools in Zambia.

A large-scale storage system co-located at a German solar farm by the PV plant’s developer Belectric, has been given the green light to operate in the grid-balancing frequency response market.

The failure of a grid-connected storage system at a solar farm in Hawaii is part of the learning process the US island state is undergoing to integrate more PV using storage, according to analyst Dean Frankel at Lux Research.

An antenna tower in Australia serving a broadcaster will be the site of a solar-plus-storage project funded by the German government and designed to deliver power 24 hours a day.

Battery maker Trojan claims its new proprietary ‘Smart Carbon’ technology can improve the cycle life of lead acid batteries by as much as 15%, through effective management of the cell in a partial state of charge.