The reuse of electric vehicle (EV) batteries in stationary storage systems offers great possibilities, but investors still need to gain confidence in the ‘second life’ battery concept, the CEO of a company behind a new project in England has said.

A €100 million (US$114.44 million) fund will be used to develop and deploy microgrid and energy storage projects by engineering and automation firm ABB, which has recently launched a new line of solutions in those areas.

Israel-headquartered SolarEdge launched a software platform for aggregating household energy storage units – and other distributed energy equipment – into virtual power plants, last week. The company’s solution has already been chosen for a VPP project in Australia by AGL, one of the country’s biggest utilities. The commercial launch of the VPP platform direct to customers is now underway. Andy Colthorpe spoke with Lior Handelsman, one of SolarEdge’s founders and vice president of marketing and product strategy.

Energy storage system and PV module manufacturer Solarwatt and PV inverter specialist Fronius have formed a partnership to supply each other’s products, covering five European countries and Australia.

Eaton to sell AES’s Advancion in Europe and MENA region, Schneider Electric plans 1MWh micro grid in Boston, California community-owned utility cancels 400MW pumped hydroelectric storage project.

A partnership to take on the micro-grid sector has been formed by battery maker Samsung SDI and ABB, the Swiss-headquartered power and automation specialist.