US PV installer SolarCity is now taking orders for solar and home energy storage systems including Tesla’s new Powerwall battery pack, as part of the company’s expanded homebuilder programme.

Following another year at Intersolar Europe where energy storage has carved out an even bigger place for itself than before, SMA’s Dr. Alexsandra Sasa Bukvic-Schaefer and Volker Wachenfeld give their take on one of the big talking points in residential system design.

Makers of flow batteries have redoubled their efforts to make the technology the leading choice for utility-scale storage applications, with one installing the largest such system to date in Europe and North America just a few days ago.

Making safe lithium-ion based home energy storage systems is not really a challenging prospect, but standards need to be adopted across the whole industry, German research and education institution Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) has said.

Germany’s residential storage system maker Sonnenbatterie will continue its push into the US, partnering with Sungevity, the residential PV installer founded by environmental activist and cleantech entrepreneur Danny Kennedy.

Investment by UK tech entrepreneur and inventor James Dyson into battery company Sakti3 was among the biggest deals in the sector in the first quarter of this year, a new report has found.

Following February’s Guest Blog which looked at factors- barriers, boundaries and benefits- that can influence its widespread adoption, SMA’s Aleksandra-Sasa Bukvic-Schaefer and Volker Wachenfeld focus on the discussions behind designing and implementing home solar-plus-storage.

Remaining on the grid while using solar paired with batteries is likely to become a more economically attractive option for commercial and residential customers in key US markets, a new report from the Rocky Mountain Institute (RMI) claims.

Toshiba is trialling a PV hybrid storage system in Japan for use in emergency situations.

Canadian Solar has finalised a deal to provide 4MW of energy storage, to be used to support the electrical grid in Ontario, Canada.