Primus Power is among a handful of makers currently commercialising their flow batteries, with rivals that include RedT, VIZn Energy and Redflow. Early customers have included Microsoft, which installed a Primus battery at its corporate HQ in a pilot project. Andy Colthorpe spoke with Primus Power CEO Tom Stepien to learn more.

Over the past couple of weeks, various flow battery makers have touted new sales and supply chain agreements as the fledgling sector fights for a share of the stationary energy storage market.

While lithium-ion is rapidly racing ahead to become the “de facto grid storage solution” and is the most popular technology choice by far, vendors of other types of batteries are also targeting the market, with varying degrees of success.

In the spirit of harnessing clean energy and enhancing grid reliability, Californian utility San Diego Gas & Electric (SDG&E) has signed contracts for 83.5MW of energy storage.

The world pipeline for energy storage on the utility side of the meter has doubled in the past year, reaching 3.4GW, according to new research by I.H.S.

Led by a record-breaking final quarter, energy storage reached 336MWh in 2016, growing 100% in megawatt-hours from 2015’s installed capacity, despite staying roughly flat in megawatts with 221MW deployed last year.

Anthony Price of consultancy Swanbarton previews the International Flow Battery Forum in Germany with a quick primer on the technology, its uses and some of the players attending the event.

A US energy company is testing power-to-gas systems that store energy from renewable energy production, including solar power, during times of excess supply.