Distributed Storage

Spanish companies Repsol and Ibil have launched the first charging station for electric vehicles with energy storage. The system reuses batteries from electric buses.

Ford, Toyota, and the U.S. government have all taken huge steps toward getting more electric vehicles on the roads, and the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy has released a report outlining which states are keeping pace.

Augwind CEO Or Yogev recently spoke to pv magazine about the Israeli company’s new storage solution for the renewables sector. The underground compressed-air storage specialist recently secured 166 MWh of capacity in Israel’s latest solar+storage tender, and plans to take equity stakes in all five projects.

Sweden saw extraordinary high spot prices during last summer, due to difficult power transmission from the north, where most of power generators are located, to the south of the country, where most of the demand is concentrated. According to Swedish PV association Svensk Solenergy, solar-plus-storage offers a quick and scalable solution to avoid expensive and slow grid improvements.

Around 2,400 South Australians will soon be fogging up the bathroom mirror without qualms about the cost of heating water, as Solahart is set to implement a new trial to control hot water systems.

French start-up Verkor is planning to build a 16 GWh manufacturing facility for EV batteries in southern France. French industry consultant Capgemini has joined the project to improve the manufacturing processes.

The U.S. storage market is booming. But while the solar PV industry has come a long way, with decades of deployment to look back on, battery energy storage is still coming of age. And when things move fast, things can go wrong. At pv magazine’s Virtual Roundtables USA event in late-November 2020, experts raised the challenges that accompany opportunities for battery storage. A move toward greater maturity allows some lessons to be learned from solar – leveling up energy storage will require commitment from the sector with standards, testing, and quality performance.

The SunPower solar monitoring app draws inspiration for its user interface from unlikely non-energy sources such as Spider-Man.

The system generates electricity and heat for residential houses and small businesses. An integrated energy management system should guarantee maximum self-consumption of the solar power produced.

Chip Breitenkamp, of Nanograf, discusses American battery manufacturing, how to ensure a resilient and equitable supply chain, and how to create jobs.