Many of the most polluting thermal power plants on the US grid today are also the most lucrative to run, but the service they provide could already be done twice as cheaply using solar and storage, developer 8minutenergy has claimed.

Constant Energy signs MoU with Siam Cement Group (SCG Cement), to deploy 50MW of C&I solar PV plants, with the company chief planning for an energy storage component on many of the projects.

Major US utility Florida Power & Light Company (FPL) is planning to build the world’s largest battery energy storage system adjacent to an existing solar power plant, with plans to roll out multiple other storage systems across the state.

China’s BYD has signed a deal which could see up to 100MWh of its systems deployed in Mexico as part of a distributed energy and large-scale solar buildout by finance group Pireos Capital.

Norwegian utility Statkraft has partnered with flow machine specialist redT on a fully-financed solar-plus-storage offering for the UK’s thriving C&I renewables market.

Walking around Energy Storage Europe this year it was obvious that the show, like the market, has grown from a small handful of “strong believers” as one source put it, to a forward-looking show focused on a ‘business-as-usual’ scenario.

NextEra Resources will build a 100MW solar farm for Arkansas utility Entergy Arkansas, to include 30MW of battery energy storage, as Entergy seeks to build out solar capacity in the state.

Sales of battery storage units to residential households in Germany are booming, but it’s the value of services the batteries can provide, rather than the hardware itself that offers a long-term economic opportunity, a Siemens representative has said.

Saba Electric Company, sole supplier of electricity to the Dutch Caribbean island of Saba, celebrated as the island ran on 100% solar for the first time ever this month, with the switch-on of a solar-plus-storage microgrid.

In the hierarchy of grid needs, peaking power is often a priority in terms of providing resiliency and balance to the network. This is usually provided by natural gas turbines, which come at a high environmental and economic cost. Andy Colthorpe charts the rise of the solar-plus-storage peaker plant.