Europe’s largest energy storage battery project could conceivably also be its best looking, as these pictures show. The two companies behind the project, which saw a large-scale energy storage system deployed in the small German village of Feldheim, also decided to call on professional street artists and invited schoolchildren to get involved with designing the outside of the system’s enclosure.

Battery-based energy storage integration and development company Younicos has launched a power converter unit and a standalone, easily deployable storage solution, with the company describing the move into hardware as a “next logical step”.

Reports that a grid operator in France has found battery-based energy storage “too costly” to be used to integrate renewable energy have been criticised by a spokesman for energy storage developer Younicos.

In December, PV module manufacturer Hanwha Q CELLS will join other big names in solar by launching an integrated energy storage product to the German residential market, in partnership with Samsung SDI.

A large scale ‘battery park’ has gone online in West Meklenberg, Germany, designed to stabilise grid frequency in an area where a large amount of power generation comes from wind and other renewable energy.