Virtual power plants (VPPs) can greatly increase the value of home energy storage systems for a range of stakeholders including grid operators, utilities and their customers, according to SolarEdge, which has just launched a VPP software platform.

Voltstorage, a German company founded in Munich in 2016, is launching a vanadium-redox-flow (VRF) energy storage system aimed at the residential market.

Masdar, the Abu Dhabi Future Energy Company, has signed a memorandum of understanding with the Korea Energy Agency (KEA) for renewable energy collaboration and investment between South Korea and the UAE.

The UK’s Valuation Office Agency (VOA) is calling on the sector to engage with the development of business rates that will be applied to energy storage projects in 2022, including those attached to subsidy-free solar farms.

Chinese electronics and engineering company Huawei, which also manufacturers inverters for solar PV systems, is starting the supply of its FusionHome Smart Energy Solution, providing solar-plus-storage capabilities to the Australian residential market during the first quarter of 2018.

The CEO of Orsted, the world’s largest offshore wind developer, has said that his company is working to establish “a scalable commercial model” for solar PV and energy storage, viewing both as potential drivers of long-term growth.

Entries have opened for the Solar Power Portal Awards 2018, with Energy-Storage.News proud to partner the event for its rebranded sixth edition.

Major oil company Shell and European utility ENGIE are among investors to have pumped US$20 million into Husk Power Systems, a developer of microgrids which is expanding its efforts in Asia and Africa.

The first ‘smart neighbourhood’ in the US state of Georgia is being created by utility Georgia Power and homebuilder PulteGroup, with each home equipped with solar PV, battery energy storage and other smart, clean and distributed energy resources.

NEXTracker CEO Dan Shugar sat down to talk to Energy-Storage.News about developing – and selling – energy storage systems in lithium and flow battery ‘flavours’ alongside his company’s market-leading PV tracker systems.