Energy Storage

A Wood Mackenzie report shows U.S. energy storage deployments tripling in capacity during Q3 ’18 versus last year’s volume, while noting that the future pipeline growth rate doubled versus prior quarters to reach 33 GW of future projects.

A number of significant manufacturing and investment plans in China, Germany and North America by major automobile makers VW, Tesla and BYD are backing up predictions that electric vehicle car sales are set to skyrocket in the coming decades.

New Zealand will connect 3,000 home battery systems to the national grid to provide demand response services. The government has also set up a US$69 million finance company to accelerate investment in distributed energy generation and electric vehicles as part of its 2050 carbon neutral goals.

A new report analyzing the world’s largest lithium-ion battery’s performance in the first year of operation shows the Hornsdale Power Reserve has delivered on high expectations of its performance and market impact. It has helped stabilize the grid, avoid outages and reduce system costs, as well as triggered a surge in uptake of similar fast response systems across Australia.

The manufacturer of C&I storage systems has been awarded funding from the EU’s SME funding scheme to enable mass production of its systems. The company’s production site could see an additional 60 employees added over the next 24 months.

Researchers from Berlin’s College for Technology and Economics have determined a ‘system performance index’ for 16 residential storage systems. The index ranks systems according to economic efficiency. The compilers of the index say many manufacturers lack transparency regarding system performance.

The UK energy technology company said the new contract will provide 120 MW of solar generation through its Limejump Virtual Power Platform. The energy bought from NextEnergy Solar Fund will then be traded on the national grid.

Agreement to wave requirement for chief shareholder FEFAM to conduct a full takeover paves way for shareholders to vote through a debt-for-equity swap that will reduce the historic battery maker’s debts by a reported 65% next Tuesday.

At the weekend’s G20 summit, a framework agreement for the project expansion was signed by project initiator Jemse SE and Chinese partners Power China and Shanghai Electric. The plant expansion will include the deployment of storage capacity. The project is one of two PV plants, totaling 400 MW, selected in round one of the RenovAr program for large-scale solar and renewable energies.

Accumulated water at hydropower facilities can work as a virtual charge during the daytime while direct solar power is being used, according to a study. Reservoir-based hydropower plants will offer the best such option, as they are highly controllable and offer abundant water levels.