The government of the state of South Australia has named four utility-scale energy storage projects which it will support with grants toward the total cost of development.

While energy storage can be considered “critical” to Australia’s transformation to a distributed, low carbon energy mix, a lack of investment and planning for the technology could have negative consequences for the network.

The remote microgrid market is maturing regarding technology and financing. Now improved sales and marketing methods are needed to commercialise the huge potential on offer in this burgeoning market segment, writes Thomas Hillig.

Lithium mining and extraction companies have made several recent high profile moves to increase their production of the metal, which is used to make the batteries in many stationary energy storage systems and EVs.

Flow battery manufacturer ViZn Energy Systems will target the African market after forming a partnership with EPC firm Jabil Inala.

Work has been completed on Australia’s “largest solar and battery storage project to date”, a 10.6MW PV installation at a copper mine linked to 6MW of storage, according to developer Juwi, which along with its project partners shared some images of the site.

French energy storage system maker Electro Power Systems has reported “outstanding results” for the first quarter of this year as well as a €2.4 million backlog of orders in East Africa, Asia-Pacific and Italy.

Global maker of construction and mining equipment Caterpillar has launched an integrated micro-grid solution which combines solar PV and energy storage with the company’s power generation equipment.

A gold exploration and mining company has agreed to purchase a potential site for excavating lithium in Nevada, citing the “great deal of attention” brought onto the state by Tesla’s decision to locate its mammoth manufacturing facility there.

Earlier this year New York governor Andrew Cuomo unveiled plans for an “energy modernisation initiative that will fundamentally transform the way electricity is distributed and used in New York State”. This will include the creation of a leading energy storage marketplace, argues Bill Radvak, chief executive officer of American Vanadium, whose company recently installed a vanadium flow battery storage system for New York’s Metropolitan Transport Authority in Manhattan.