Energy Storage

National trade association, the ESA has published a roadmap for the adoption of 35 GW of energy storage in the U.S., as well as outlining the benefits of such a move. pv magazine USA spoke with CEO, Kelly Speakes-Backman about storage and the challenges of state-level advocacy at ESA’s annual conference in Boston.

In a new report, the association states that urgent action is required for, among other issues, the improvement of solar generation forecasts, the exploitation of storage systems, and the reduction of minimum operation and start-up times for both existing and new thermal and hydro generators.

Analyst data records 53% annual growth in storage in 2017, rising to 1.9 GW as South Korea climbed to top of the tree in terms of cumulative capacity. Global project pipeline has soared to 10.4 GW.

The Indian multinational EPC has this week unveiled a new global division that will focus on the development of power+storage hybrid solutions. The new unit will focus initially on lighting up remote islands and has an installation target of 1 GW.

Price of cobalt, a raw material used in lithium-ion batteries, rose 26% in the first quarter of the year, following 114% annual increase in 2017, finds EnergyTrend. Suppliers may look at ways to lower cobalt content in new iterations, experts say.

A session at BNEF’s Future of Energy Summit explored how renewables paired with energy storage are successfully competing with new gas plants.

Rise in small scale solar contributing towards new trend of falling summertime peak transmission system demand on U.K. grid, says outlook report. Inflexibile gas and nuclear plants may be curtailed to make way for solar and wind.

Inaugural global energy storage report by GTM Research finds that Australia’s behind-the-meter storage market tripled in 2017, while the U.S. remains the world’s leading market with an installed energy capacity of 431 MWh. China poised to rise to second place globally in 2019.

Local power utility, TPL is seeking independent power producers for the deployment of 6 MW of solar PV capacity combined with storage. The selected project will be granted a 25-year PPA.

Götz Fischbeck, Business developer Central Europe Delta EE, discussed with pv magazine at the recent Energy Storage Europe exhibition ways in which storage applications can become smarter in order to better serve the grid and boost the growth of electric vehicles.