“We are happy about the Italian government’s decision that allows us to fully resume business operations in Italy,” Manz AG CEO Martin Drasch has said, following a ruling that deems lithium-ion battery production to be of ‘strategic importance’ for the European country.
Despite a subdued year in 2019 and a challenging start to 2020 caused by the COVID-19 outbreak, the outlook for energy storage remains strong, says Julian Jansen of market research group IHS Markit, taking a deep dive across segments and geographies.
Virginia Governor Ralph Northam two days ago signed the Virginia Clean Economy Act (VCEA), finally putting into law a 3.1GW energy storage target and a goal to achieve 100% renewable and clean energy by 2050 for the US Commonwealth State.
More than 14-fold increase is forecast to 2025, from 523MW recorded in 2019, with the “sharp scale-ups” both regionally and nationally to be driven primarily by a combination of “utility procurements and the accelerating residential market,”
Results announced last week in a Capacity Market (CM) auction in France which had low-emissions requirements, saw 253MW of energy storage awarded 7-year contracts.
New proposals from the UK government intend to slam shut a loophole that had allowed for battery storage projects in the country to access more favourable payments for their flexible capacity.
EU decision-makers have recognised the key role energy storage can play, integrating it into the EU’s Clean Energy Package (CEP) in some critically important ways. Valeska Gottke at BVES looks at how Germany’s industry is working towards these same goals.
New York Governor Andrew Cuomo’s annual State of the State Address has reaffirmed his administration’s commitment to combating climate change and growing the green economy, while West Virginia Governor Jim Justice’s address spoke of “fighting” to retain coal jobs.
