Last year was a “seminal year” for energy storage, where the technology moved from “dream to reality”, according to impact investor Nancy Pfund, one of the earliest backers to Tesla and SolarCity.

Vertically integrated energy storage solution company Leclanché and global battery manufacturer Narada Power have agreed to a strategic partnership for the manufacturing and development of lithium-ion battery technology for the Chinese and global markets.

Tesla has acquired German engineering firm Grohmann Engineering to form a new advanced automation segment of its business, producing manufacturing equipment for its factories in the US.

Kodak and Polaris Battery Labs have collaborated on a support system for new battery manufacturers and products.

While seeming “tech breakthroughs” garner a great deal of media attention, the three key factors in determining the likely impact of storage tech companies are innovative technology, scalability and a proven track record, a Bloomberg New Energy Finance analyst has said.

Energy storage manufacturing is the fastest growing business unit for tool maker Manz, the company has told PV Tech Storage.

Some news in brief from around the world of energy storage this week: Manz underlines positive assessment of energy storage sector with US$55 million deals, Sonnenbatterie backs US push with investment from INVEN Capital, local sources report AES wants to build 250MW of projects in Philippines.

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.

Battery manufacturer Leclanché and a maker of ceramic separators and electrodes owned by Electrovaya have signed a deal to scale up their respective efforts in the lithium-ion battery space.