SolarCity has chosen Tesla to supply a 52MWh utility-scale energy storage system, which will make the output of a solar farm in Hawaii dispatchable.
The UK looks set for the arrival of energy storage in a big way this year. While these companies and their battery chemistries are fighting it out for both market share and brand awareness, several energy storage systems have been deployed already on a commercial basis using a more novel storage technology – the saltwater battery.
Tesla executives were unwilling to publicly put figures on expected sales for the company’s stationary storage products or for near-term cost reduction objectives, but said that production is on track.
Thus far, the relationship between incumbent utilities and the rise of distributed energy storage has been a difficult one. Cosmin Laslau of Lux Research gives his quick take on one US utility’s plan to stay in the game, offering Tesla Powerwalls to customers in three different ownership models.
Energy storage is to be included in India’s state-run solar energy tenders for the first time under plans to help smoother integration of renewables into the grid.
AGL Energy has invested US$20 million in energy storage manufacturer Sunverge, as Australia’s biggest utility set up a fund worth ten times that to help meet its climate change commitments.
Energy Storage News spoke to UK veteran PV installer Martin Cotterell about selling energy storage systems responsibly, and making customers at commercial and industrial (C&I) and domestic level aware of the options available to them.
Hawaii’s electricity regulator and main utility have recognised that customer-sited distributed energy resources (DERs), including rooftop PV and energy storage, can provide essential grid services and better visbility for network operators, the VP of Stem Inc’s Hawaii operations has told Energy Storage News.
The UK solar industry is moving towards a market led by power purchase agreements (PPAs) and wider use of storage technology in the wake of subsidy cuts.
A spokesman for Solar Frontier has said that a retrofit market for up to half a million home energy storage systems could open up in Japan from the year 2019, as agreements made under a subsidy scheme for solar in existence before the current feed-in tariff begin to reach the end of their terms.
