Reports that a grid operator in France has found battery-based energy storage “too costly” to be used to integrate renewable energy have been criticised by a spokesman for energy storage developer Younicos.
Some news in brief from around the world of energy storage this week: Dutch grid-balancing act heralds AES’ first Europe installation, Japanese PV inverter company Tabuchi makes bid to become household name in US solar-plus-storage and Solar Impulse takes unscheduled break from spreading clean energy message.
Energy storage technology is now used in 44% of US microgrids with 92% of that storage commissioned since 2012, according to GTM Research’s latest report.
The opening keynote address at Intersolar North America next week will be delivered by Tesla’s chief technical officer (CTO) JB Straubel.
Lilia Xie of Lux Research spoke with the founders of 24M, which claims to have reduced lithium cell costs by 50% over existing technologies and is targeting US$100 per kWh by 2020.
24M, a battery company that claims it can achieve 50% cost-savings over existing Li-ion technology and hit US$100 per kWh by 2020, is positioning itself as a ‘disruptor’ of the energy storage space, an industry analyst has said.
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.
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.
So-called ‘second life’ batteries taken from Nissan’s Leaf electric vehicle (EV) will be deployed in commercial-scale energy storage systems in regions including the US, following a deal involving Green Charge Networks.
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.
