Utility Scale Storage

Video: Michael Fuhs and Jonathan Gifford, chief editors at pv magazine group, showcase the latest innovations at the Energy Storage Europe 2017 exhibition that are shaping the storage market.

Video interview: On the second day of the Energy Storage Europe conference and trade show Hans Werner Reinhard, representative of organizer Messe Düsseldorf, gave his view on the future of the event and the energy storage market.

Gigawatts a-go-go this week as Turkey, Algeria and Vietnam all toy with those magical GWs, while in more mature markets German storage figures provided reasons for optimism and Blattner Energy took the top spot for U.S. EPCs.

The French energy giant keeps expanding into the renewable energy business. Its France-based unit EDF Energies Nouvelles will build PV plants totaling 23.7 MW, while its US division EDF EN has created a new subsidiary for distributed solar and storage projects up to 30 MW.

The German battery manufacturer and the Korean industrial conglomerate have unveiled a new high-voltage storage system. The device has an efficiency of 98% and functions just as well with a low voltage of 48 volts as with a high voltage of 1,000 volts.

The French energy giant is offering to acquire Innogy, the renewable energy unit of German power provider RWE. Innogy acquired German developer Belectric and its huge solar power plant portfolio in January.

German car maker BMW will provide Vattenfall with 1,000 lithium-ion car batteries. Vattenfall will use the batteries, which are also used for the vehicle BMW i3, for storage projects at wind farms.

Amid the innovation on display in Portugal, the optimism in Japan and the, well, eagerness in Norway were stories of takeovers, Tesla and storage that shaped yet another fascinating week in the global solar PV industry.

Tesla founder Elon Musk has thrown down a challenge to the Australian government, saying that he can build a battery array capable of resolving South Australia’s energy stability issues within 100 days. Musk took to social media to make the challenge, saying that Tesla could develop a 100 MWh system to stabilize the state’s electricity network, within 100 days of a contract being signed, or that he’ll provide it for free.

While Greece’s solar PV market starts to gather heat, pv magazine explores why Greece’s non-interconnected island region is the country’s number one spot in need of more solar PV and storage projects.