Energy Storage

Spain’s most important renewable energy fair is becoming increasingly about solar. After a decade of slim pickings, last year’s event promised better times and, if this year’s show didn’t completely deliver, that’s because elections loom large.

A 60 kW floating array was deployed by New Southern Energy at the reservoir of a fruit farm near Franschhoek, in the Western Cape Province. A second phase of the project will also include storage.

According to solar body the PPLSA, around 300 PV system owners have already gone off-grid as the tariff granted for surplus power under net metering was not attractive enough. Several barriers are preventing net metering taking hold, including an obligation to either use locally made equipment or pay more to re-certify imported modules and inverters.

Having launched a residential storage system, the German giant announced plans last week to acquire inverter maker Kaco and start a new smart infrastructure business from April 1. In light of those moves, pv magazine spoke to IHS Markit’s Cormac Gilligan about the new kid, albeit huge, on the block.

SECI, the organization responsible for coordinating India’s push for 100 GW of new solar capacity by 2022, has had a busy week. But, as last year illustrated, tenders alone are not always a guarantee of new generation assets.

In the run-up to the Energy Storage Europe conference pv magazine is featuring the top ten developments in the field as our Energy Storage Highlights, selected by an independent jury. Having recently covered a thermoelectric energy storage system by MAN and Trina’s literal island grid in the Maldives, we are entering our top three.

Owners of residential PV systems increasingly want more features. Virtual power plants, smart EV charging and self-consumption measured by ever higher percentages of self-sufficiency have been buzzwords in the industry. The result has been a new breed of smart bidirectional inverters, sometimes dubbed hybrid inverters. And with utilities having found business models that also work out in their favor, could a new dawn of residential installations rise over the world of suburbia?

Two sites with capacities of 34.7 MW and 25.7 MW will supply unsubsidized power to Warrington Borough Council. The smaller project will provide the local authority’s energy needs and reduce its electricity bill while the larger one will sell renewable energy on the open market, further bolstering council income.

After announcing its entry into residential storage a week ago, the Munich-based multinational has now unveiled a plan to acquire inverter manufacturer Kaco. Siemens has not provided details about the value of the transaction.

In the run-up to the Energy Storage Europe conference pv magazine is featuring the top ten developments in the field as our Energy Storage Highlights, selected by an independent jury of experts. Yesterday we entered our top five, with MAN’s thermoelectric energy storage.