Utility Scale Storage

An international research team has designed a residential solar-plus-storage system based on gravity. The system was built with a solar power generator, a bulk booster charge controller, an inverter, a solenoid device, a deep cycle battery, a pulley block, a geared motor, a microcontroller, and wire ropes. Its creators said the system is ideal for regions with high solar radiation. They found that, due to its high electrical requirements, the system needs to rely on high-power solar modules with an output of over 500 W.

A solar array planned in the Tetereane district of Cuamba has been described by its developer as the nation’s first independent power project to feature utility scale storage.

Furthermore, Swiss energy company Axpo and Swedish-Swiss electrical equipment giant ABB committed to combining their technologies and skills for several projects related to green hydrogen in Italy and Germany’s gas transmission system operators Gascade and Ontras announced a plan to set up a platform for the hydrogen industry in eastern Germany, with an initial grid to cover 475 kilometers of pipelines.

Greece’s energy storage sector is heating up, with the government confirming plans to publish an energy storage policy framework and hold tenders for 700 MW of battery storage.

The government of the archipelago is tendering the deployment of two big batteries, with capacities of 24 MW/24 MWh and 16 MW/16 MWh, respectively, to store renewable energy for 22 islands.

Energy efficiency, electrification of heating and transport, and the provision of clean cooking facilities are all going in the wrong direction as the Covid crisis deprived millions in sub-Saharan Africa of electricity use, according to a report by the IEA, IRENA, WHO, World Bank and UN Statistics Division.

Spanish developer FRV has agreed to participate in a €100 million effort to generate hydrogen via a 10 MW electrolyzer, powered by a 20 MW solar plant.

The state government in Queensland, Australia, has announced plans to finance design work and cost-related studies for the construction of a new pumped hydro facility.

Favorable federal tax policies and state regulatory reform could help the storage sector notch even higher rates of growth.

According to two new pieces of research, Europe is on track to reach 2.7 GW of operational hydrogen electrolyzer capacity by 2025 and most of this capacity is expected to be located in Germany. Furthermore, three European gas associations have assessed the competitiveness of the different transportation options for hydrogen and have found it depends on the distance over which hydrogen is transported, as well as on scale and end-use.