The proposed deal for Tesla to acquire US rooftop solar company SolarCity makes sense but could distract both parties from immediate core objectives, according to Lux Research.

The White House announcement of new developments and investment in energy storage has been characterised as “the first executive office push for energy storage” that will “undoubtedly galvanize” the industry, in a new GTM Research brief by the firm’s energy storage director Ravi Manghani.

President Obama has announced a raft of activity focussing on the development, investment and regulatory framework for energy storage.

Texas-headquarted Mercom Capital Group recently released its Q1 2016 funding and M&A report for energy storage, smart grid and energy efficiency sectors. Mercom’s CEO and co-founder Raj Prabhu discusses the energy storage trends tracked in this quarter with Energy-Storage.News, especially in light of the drop in venture capital funding this quarter.

Volker Wachenfeld of SMA explores some technical and policy factors driving growing use cases for refurbishing home PV systems to add energy storage, and the markets where this is already gaining traction as an idea.

The US Department of Energy is to fund six projects trialling the combination of solar and energy storage.

Flow battery manufacturer ViZn Energy Systems has won a contract to provide a 128kW/320kWh system for a US department of energy project.

German storage manufacturer sonnen will begin selling residential storage systems in the US before Christmas.

The number of installed stationary battery energy storage systems (BESS) is growing significantly. According to recent estimates, today’s annual global market volume of about US$1 billion is expected to increase more than twentyfold in less than 10 years, reaching a staggering US$20–25billion by 2024. Florian Mayr of Apricum Consulting looks at this growth in the context of specific use cases for storage in two of its most advanced regional markets, the US and Germany.

Saft wins deal with Saudi Arabian industrial giant, Swiss college adds battery to smart grid research and an energy storage caucus hits Capitol Hill.