ICYMI: This year’s Intersolar Europe was accompanied by the biggest energy storage show to take place at the Munich industry bonanza. For those of you that couldn’t be there, or were perhaps too busy with meetings to take in the whole show, here are some pictorial highlights and some quick commentary.

The UK’s energy retail market is witnessing an exodus of customers leaving the so-called Big Six for independent suppliers, who are attracting them with home solar systems and a battery to match. Liam Stoker uncovers what’s behind the trend for new energy suppliers taking to domestic PV

Timed to coincide with this week’s EU elections, a set of 10 recommendations to “kick start” energy storage has been unveiled by European trade association EASE.

Energy storage has moved out of an early, marketing and awareness phase, and real business is being done throughout Europe, Energy-Storage.news heard yesterday at the annual ees Europe show Munich, Germany.

Grid-connected energy storage deployments have enjoyed a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 74% worldwide in the years 2013 to 2018, with a “boom” in deployment figures expected over the next five years, analysis firm Wood Mackenzie has said.

Andy Colthorpe caught up with Moixa CTO Chris Wright to hear about how a tie-in with trading company ITOCHU and the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) is creating smarter energy networks in Japan using solar, batteries, electric cars – and Moixa’s GridShare software platform.

Sales of battery storage units to residential households in Germany are booming, but it’s the value of services the batteries can provide, rather than the hardware itself that offers a long-term economic opportunity, a Siemens representative has said.

Firm spies potential for more than 4.5GW of flexible power capacity in the UK alone and a home energy management industry which it expects to be worth more than US£2 billion (US$2.58 billion) a year by 2025.

Consumers in a South London housing estate will soon be able to trade solar power amongst themselves as an blockchain-enabled pilot project backed by EDF gets underway.

Both major parties in the election race for the Australian state of New South Wales have put forward plans focusing on solar and storage for households, with some mixed but mostly positive reaction from the industry.