News in brief: Australia gets its largest battery storage system to date, Tesla man persuaded to go back to Sonnenbatterie and Gildemeister installs PV-linked flow battery systems in Czech Republic.

Production of stationary storage systems has already begun at Tesla’s facilities in Fremont California, while the company’s Gigafactory is “on track” and could even be expanded beyond original plans, company executives said yesterday.

GE’s intention to move into the energy storage industry is a further sign that the sector is maturing, a leading analyst has said.

A push by US leasing giant SolarCity to serve small and medium enterprises (SMEs) with its commercial solar offering will be bolstered by a tie-in with the company’s energy storage solutions, a spokesman has confirmed.

There is “still an argument to be had” over the best use of storage solutions in the UK markets, with pure storage or back-up capabilities two possible options according to LG Solar head of UK sales Bob Mills.

The opening keynote address at Intersolar North America next week will be delivered by Tesla’s chief technical officer (CTO) JB Straubel.

Oil major Shell is to purchase 20MW of energy storage from Advanced Microgrid Solutions (AMS).

Elon Musk’s Tesla has done the rest of the storage industry a big favour by putting a price point on lithium-ion batteries, according to the CEO of Sonnenbatterie’s North American operations.

To hit the best possible cost reduction outcomes, lithium-ion battery producers will have to scale-up to go beyond 1GWh of production capacity, but will hit a ceiling when they reach 10GWh, a new report claims.

After reports that it will build facilities to rival the capacity of Tesla’s ‘Gigafactory’, Chinese battery and EV-maker BYD (‘Build Your Dreams’) faces a similarly ambitious task to scale up demand, an analyst has told PV Tech Storage.