Investment bank Citigroup is predicting a 240GW global battery storage market worth US$400 billion by 2030 as increased deployment creates a “virtuous circle” of falling costs.

The US market for solar-plus-storage is predicted to grow more than twentyfold in the next three years, rapidly expanding from US$42 million in value this year to US$1 billion by 2018, according to GTM Research.

The German solar industry association, BSW Solar, has created an extensive report on safety for lithium-ion battery-based energy storage systems for home use, and plans to publish an English language version next week.

Imergy Power Systems, the California-based energy storage specialist, has received an order for four of its ESP5 vanadium flow batteries from Hawaiian renewables firm, Energy Research Systems.

Sharp, ABB, SMA and Bosch are among the big names readying new energy storage products for the UK PV market. Andy Colthorpe caught up with them at the Solar Energy UK show to find out what tech fits best for the UK’s nascent storage sector.

A ‘double zero energy’ home with energy storage and solar PV systems has been launched in the US, as a result of the partnership between solar manufacturer and developer SunPower and homebuilder KB Home.

Sunworks, the installation arm of PV manufacturing start-up, Solar3D, has begun offering battery storage systems in its solar power projects.

PV Tech Storage went to Kent, England, to see the installation of a lithium-ion battery storage system coupled with PV at a uniquely designed Passivhaus.

The UK division of Chinese PV manufacturer ReneSola has sold forty domestic energy storage units to an installation company in Essex, England.

SunPower Corporation has become the latest US solar provider to pilot the deployment of residential storage systems in California by extending the terms of an existing partnership with homebuilding company KB Homes to include storage.