The recognition by regulators of the need for an enlarged role for energy storage in the UK is a major milestone for the sector, trade associations in the country have said.
The UK, catapulted into being one of the world’s leading regions for solar PV deployment unexpectedly over the past couple of years, is now facing just as unexpected challenges in the form of drastic FiT cuts of as much as 87%. While this is undoubtedly bad for the industry, there are some possible avenues for policy adjustments that won’t require subsidising as well as strategies the industry could adopt to make self-consuming solar with storage a more viable option, writes Simon Daniel of Moixa Technology.
Lithium-ion battery-based energy storage for commercial and industrial customers in the US lies on the cusp of becoming “viable” over the next three to five years, according to international credit rating agency Moody’s.
NextEra Energy’s CEO sees energy storage as one of three areas driving “tremendous growth” for the group and has said that discussions about renewables are “naturally” leading into dialogue on storage.
News in brief: Indian PM Modi visits Tesla and talks solar-plus-storage with Musk; Scottish renewable energy group forms energy storage division; Harvard team developing flow batteries reports findings.
The €32 million (US$36 million) Hydrogen Mobility Europe programme was launched today, with Germany, the UK, the Scandinavian countries and France signing up with the aim of expanding hydrogen refuelling station coverage across the continent. Andy Colthorpe speaks to one of the companies behind the project and power-to-gas energy expert Christopher Hebling of Fraunhofer ISE about this “modern fairytale” technology.
Plans by Italy’s grid operator to allow for the interconnection of energy storage to the network have resulted in the country’s first grid-connected solar-smoothing storage facility being inaugurated.
Battery-based energy storage integration and development company Younicos is to provide a 1MW turnkey battery system for a solar project in Texas from PV developer OCI Solar Power.
The Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI), a non-profit organisation funded by electric utilities to conduct research on issues related to the electric power industry in USA, is leading a project that will see renewable energy development company SunEdison supply battery systems for nine net-zero energy homes in California.
A small municipal utility will be the recipient of what is thought to be one of the first US projects to try out a combination of revenue streams from a storage battery linked to a solar farm.
