Distributed Storage

The Italian energy business plans to spend €70 billion on clean energy this decade and also announced plans to invest in e-mobility and grid flexibility, in concert with outside investors.

Scientists in Qatar have developed a new model for setting up standalone EV recharging stations based on the hybridization of multiple renewable energy sources and different types of storage. The system includes power generation devices from CPV/T, wind, and biomass and is designed to fast-charge 80 electrical vehicles daily.

Nanotech Energy plans to release a non-flammable, environmentally friendly lithium battery that can charge “18 times faster than anything that is currently available on the market.” And it aims to do it within the next year.

Scientists in India have proposed a model to design an off-grid, hybrid energy system based on a combination of solar, wind, biomass, biogas and fuel cell, linked to storage, for electrifying a cluster of three village hamlets in the Indian state of Karnataka. The model is implemented through the HOMER software and a genetic algorithm.

Hong Kong-owned UK Power Networks is aiming to commission 250 MW of grid flexibility from energy storage assets with capacities as small as 10 kW, on contracts ranging in length from six months to seven years.

Each unit contains 200 pre-assembled and pre-wired photovoltaic panels and can be deployed in 30 minutes.

The German research institute wants to develop an efficient and reliable methodology, which could contribute to considerable cost reductions in photovoltaic generation – both for manufacturers and operators.

Form Energy plans to deploy a 1 MW/150 MWh system with a Minnesota utility by 2023.

Solarpower Europe has called on member states to put solar and battery storage front and center when it comes to drawing up the Recovery and Resilience plans needed to secure a slice of the bloc’s proposed €672.5 billion post-Covid stimulus package.

The in-country analyst has revised up its expectation for this year and says a healthy unsubsidized project pipeline will keep the numbers ticking over in 2021. The spending plans necessary to ramp up renewables targets in the next five-year plan, though, could put the nation on a collision course with the EU.