When it comes to realising the benefits of Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) incentives, the US energy storage industry has barely scratched the surface of what’s possible, according to FlexGen’s Yann Brandt.

The Q3 2023 edition of our downstream solar PV journal, PV Tech Power, is now available to download, leading with a focus on solar and storage in the US, one year on from the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA).

Ben Lincoln, energy expert at intellectual property law firm Potter Clarkson, looks at patent filing activity in energy storage technologies outside the world of electrochemical batteries.

It is “unacceptable” for a rural electricity supplier to use solar to prevent load-shedding, but batteries or other grid-independent electricity sources could be used, Eskom said.

The investment tax credit is an undoubted game changer for the US industry, but it isn’t easy or cheap to capture its benefits.

It’s been a rollercoaster couple of weeks for US clean energy, an industry accustomed to ups and downs in policy and market dynamics.

Tax incentives for energy storage included in the US’ Inflation Reduction Act could mean fewer solar-plus-storage hybrid plants are built.

Hornsdale Power Reserve in South Australia has been fined for breaching National Electricity Rules over a three month period in 2019.  

The US battery storage market is struggling to adapt to rising raw materials costs and has reached a “crisis point”.

A US government pledge of US$2.9 billion support for the country’s battery manufacturing and recycling value chain is more like a band-aid than the “major surgery” required to fix the problem.