Distributed Storage

A report by Norwegian energy consultant DNV GL has considered the opportunity for long-term energy storage to play a role in balancing annual supply and demand fluctuations in a renewables-led grid. Using 58 years of Dutch weather and energy consumption data, the study found long-term solutions such as green hydrogen could make a valuable contribution – but perhaps not as much as some analysts believe.

Dubai-based PV developer Enerwhere has come up with a new business model for solar projects at construction sites. Its approach, which is based on short-duration PPAs, involves moving mobile PV installations from one building site to another.

The UK Solar Trade Association has laid out its wish list ahead of new chancellor Rishi Sunak’s first budget speech tomorrow, with an exemption of solar from onerous tax valuations top of the agenda. COVID-19 measures, though, are likely to cast everything else into the shade.

Getting the most out of a bifacial module requires a rethink at almost every level of system design and the industry is hungry for field data generated by such systems to better inform energy yield modeling and define the best approaches to maximizing yield at minimal cost. In May, the U.S. National Renewable Energy Laboratory began a three-year study into bifacial performance which is beginning to yield results.

U.S. researchers have investigated whether energy storage deployment could actually drive up greenhouse gas emissions in the short term in some energy markets. The fact the existing literature considers only the dispatch of energy from storage facilities in the current fossil fuel-renewables energy mix, though, could understate the long-term emissions reduction benefits of such facilities.

The state government has partnered with the German energy storage company to offer 188 families locally assembled sonnenBatteries as they rebuild their homes.

New measures introduced by the government allow households, businesses and public entities to produce and trade clean electricity in low-voltage grids. The new framework is open to power projects with a generation capacity no larger than 200 kW.

Scientists at Germany’s Helmholtz Zentrum Berlin have made a discovery they say could greatly increase the energy storage capacity of titanium-based ‘MXene’ pseudocapacitors, ultimately leading to faster-charging batteries. The group found adding urea molecules between MXene layers increased the material’s storage capacity by up to 56%.

Ganfeng Lithium blamed a falling lithium salt price for its expected woes, rather than the effects of the COVID-19 outbreak on operations which it spelled out last month.

The OneBox, from Indian manufacturer Vision Mechatronics, consists of a lithium battery, hybrid inverter and solar charge controller to give a ‘hassle-free’ solution for electricity back-up during power outages. Solar rooftop owners are offered a grid feed feature to maximize net metering income from any excess power generated.