Welcome to Part 2 of our in-depth talk with Nancy Pfund, managing partner at DBL Partners, a venture capital firm specialising in companies and start-ups that offer both rewarding financial returns and positive social impacts. As well as being one of the earliest backers to Tesla and SolarCity, to utility-scale solar tracker company NEXTracker to Off-Grid Electric, which deploys solar in rural Africa; to others in energy storage like Advanced Microgrid Solutions and Primus Power, Pfund is extremely well-placed to offer a quick Q&A ‘masterclass’ in energy storage investing.
Work begins this month on solar-plus-storage projects in North Carolina that will deploy a total 12MWh energy storage, by developer Cypress Creek Renewables and turnkey solar and storage provider United Renewable Energy.
What is expected to be Europe’s largest community battery is set to be installed at an innovative regeneration scheme in Nottingham, England, with a 2MWh Tesla battery to be deployed in September as part of a housing scheme alongside community solar.
Energy storage is the next obvious addition to solar plants in the UK. Elizabeth Reid of law firm Bird & Bird takes a look at some of the drivers, opportunities – and regulatory obstacles.
UPDATED: The Queensland government plans to remove the premium feed-in tariff (FiT) from PV consumers on its Solar Bonus Scheme who install energy storage batteries.
One of the world’s leading suppliers of solar PV trackers is targeting sales volumes of approximately 15MW per week of the new battery solution it has paired with its products.
Brisbane-based renewable energy investor Lyon Group has launched an innovative utility-scale solar-plus-storage market services tender to cover 640MWh of storage across three major projects in Victoria, South Australia and Queensland.
A consultancy contract for a 250MW pumped hydro energy storage plant in Dubai has been awarded to French power company EDF by the emirate’s main public infrastructure company.
Chinese PV inverter manufacturer Sungrow has installed a hybrid solar-diesel-storage system for five islands in the Maldives, consisting of 2.7MWp of solar and 700kW / 333kWh of energy storage.
