Steag, a major power generator which constructs, plans and operates power plants, is spending US$100 million on acquiring 90MW of large-scale energy storage to help stabilise Germany’s grid.

Top names have signed up to support the Energy Storage division of PV Tech Storage’s publisher Solar Media, which has launched a series of events and media activities for next year, targeting the UK’s nascent industry.

Energy storage may prove to be the key bulwark against the so-called value deflation of solar expected as it achieves higher levels of penetration, according to an analyst at GTM Research.

John Grimes of Australia’s Energy Storage Council writes a summary of the recent Global Energy Storage Market Overview & Regional Summary Report which was issued to his group’s members in October. The report looks at many of the big trends and activities driving the space forward.

A large-scale energy storage system aimed at integrating renewables into electricity networks has been completed on the Hawaiian island of Kaua’i, paired with the state’s biggest PV array to date.

Saft wins deal with Saudi Arabian industrial giant, Swiss college adds battery to smart grid research and an energy storage caucus hits Capitol Hill.

One research firm has welcomed predictions from a think tank that Germany’s electricity network could cope with the addition of “huge amounts” of solar-plus-storage and even benefit, but also agreed that policy changes will most likely be required to enable that scenario.

PV Tech Storage spoke to Nancy Pfund of ‘social impact’ investors DBL Partners, among Tesla’s early backers and participants in two of the top five VC fund plays of this year’s third quarter.

The importance of balancing and improving electric grids is opening up pathways to the deployment of utility-scale energy storage, according to a Guest Blog from SMA Solar Technology, published this week on PV Tech Storage.

In contrast to “behind-the-meter” household energy storage systems, whose operational strategy is generally aimed at local financial optimisation of power consumption, the use cases for battery technologies on an industrial scale are primarily determined by the requirements of the electricity supply grids, particularly the regional distribution grids. SMA’s Voker Wachenfeld and Dr Alexsandra Sasa Bukvic-Schaefer take a closer look at some of the demands and applications driving the sector forward.