EU decision-makers have recognised the key role energy storage can play, integrating it into the EU’s Clean Energy Package (CEP) in some critically important ways. Valeska Gottke at BVES looks at how Germany’s industry is working towards these same goals.

A legislative package for energy storage research and development has been welcomed by the US Energy Storage Association after receiving approval from the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee.

“With no large-scale batteries participating in the wholesale market in New York, the first day we turned the battery on it was exciting to see if all our internal models were correct in how the battery would behave,” KCE’s COO Dan Fitzgerald told us.

Two bills that have been introduced in the US to support and accelerate the development and deployment of energy storage are enjoying cross-party support and look likely to pass unopposed, an analyst has said.

Legislators in Minnesota have begun the first steps to establishing fair or optimal market conditions for the deployment of energy storage, setting out rules for determining the value of storage to the network.

Utility Xcel Energy’s latest resource plan for Colorado, aimed at increasing renewable energy generation and aiding the retirement of coal plants, was approved by the state’s Public Utilities’ Commission (PUC) on Monday.

Governor of California Jerry Brown, who likened the Trump administration’s environmental stance as a “declaration of war on America”, looks set to commit his state to a “100% renewable energy” policy.

In response to Massachusetts Legislature passing a bill raising the state’s renewable energy standard and another encouraging clean energy and energy storage use during peak hours, solar and energy storage trade groups SEIA and ESA offered contrasting views.

Solar industry veteran and PV Tech blogger Edgar A. Gunther was told by the New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy’s office that clean energy legislation proposed for the state is “on his desk” but appear to be no closer to receiving his approval.

A unanimous vote taken by the US regulator FERC (Federal Energy Regulatory Commission) which would allow energy storage and other distributed energy resources to play into wholesale markets has been hailed as a “significant step” forward.