Distributed Storage

Storage Hub founder Oliver Schmidt speaks with pv magazine about his outlook for battery energy storage pricing and the cost trajectory of electrolyzers. Schmidt’s new book, “Monetizing Energy Storage – A toolkit to assess future cost and value,” will be published by Oxford University Press in June.

As the US Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act demonstrated, companies preparing to spend big on batteries are at risk of being blindsided by supply-chain-related legislation. Here are some tips on how US developers can anticipate policy curveballs.

Just weeks after announcing its intent to build a AUD 300 million ($210 million) lithium-ion battery manufacturing facility in Australia, Recharge Industries has reportedly joined a host of other bidders considering the revival of collapsed UK battery company Britishvolt. Investment could also revive plans to construct a battery cell gigafactory in northern England.

Low participation rates for vehicle-to-grid (V2G) tech of just 12% to 43% are needed to provide short-term grid storage demand throughout the world by as early as 2030, according to a group of Dutch and US researchers.

Japan’s largest oil company, Eneos, has opened a green hydrogen demonstration plant in Brisbane, Australia. The project is relatively small, producing just 20 kilograms of green hydrogen per day, but Eneos Senior Vice President Yuichiro Fujiyama says the company will expand it in the “near future.”

LG has developed an air source heat pump with the capacity to heat 200 liters to 270 liters of domestic water. It uses R134a as a refrigerant and the pump has a coefficient of performance (COP) of up to 3.85.

Soleis AG has developed two storage systems with capacities of 1 KWh and 2 kWh.

V-Tac’s new 10 kWh lithium iron phosphate, wall-mounting battery system purportedly runs for more than 5,000 cycles.

US researchers have conducted case studies on the successful deployment of distributed renewables in the state of Alaska. In one study, two cities installed 223.5 kW solar PV arrays coupled with 351 kWh batteries and 250 kW inverters, in addition to cold climate heat pumps.

Andreas Thorsheim, the CEO of Norway-based residential solar specialist Otovo, speaks to pv magazine about solar array prices, current market trends for distributed storage, and shortages of qualified professionals.