Energy Management Systems

A few weeks out from the Energy Storage Europe conference and 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 presented a ’70s revival of a ceramic high temperature battery.

As national utility Eskom faces a financial and operational crisis, rumors are spreading that the government may ask independent power producers to renegotiate the tariffs of PPAs awarded in the first two rounds of its renewable energy program. South African solar association SAPVIA has already given short shrift to the idea.

The two nations have signed a memorandum of understanding to build a third power link connecting their electricity systems. The news will again initiate hope for the transfer of solar energy from Africa to Europe, but is that hope justified?

Some 377 households and a retirement home are participating in a pilot project. In the first two weeks of this month, solar power generators sold 82% of their electricity within the neighborhood. The goal of the one-year test run is to develop a viable concept for the local marketing of solar power.

With its investment, the energy company has broadened its portfolio of ways to help customers save on energy bills. There are multiple energy companies pursuing similar goals at the moment as distributed generation and storage solutions require utilities to find new business models; not the least to avoid grid expansion costs.

The 23 MW/12.6 MWh facility is near Mafraq, in northern Jordan. The storage system will offer peak shaving to increase grid stability while enhancing solar output.

In the Infrastructure Outlook 2050 study, Gasunie and TenneT say ambitious EU climate targets can only be reached through deeper integration of the power and gas infrastructure, and with power-to-gas technologies supporting renewables. The most bullish scenario for solar states how storage and power-to-hydrogen capacity could be crucial to meet seasonality in supply and demand.

Australia’s Smart Energy Council welcomed yesterday’s launch by the NSW Labor party of a policy to drive 7 GW of renewable energy into the National Energy Market by 2030 as “the biggest rollout of renewable energy in Australia’s history”.

Chicago may be the largest city in the U.S. to commit to 100% renewable energy and has set a 2035 target date. The famous city’s long association with nuclear power says a lot about the future of clean energy Statesside.

Given its ambitious goal of achieving 175 GW of renewable power generation capacity by 2022 – and push for electric mobility – the world’s second most populous nation presents a potentially huge investment opportunity.