Energy Storage

According to IHS Markit, energy storage inverter shipments are on track to reach 3 GW in 2018, growing to 7 GW by 2022. Currently, SMA is the market leader. Overall, the competitive landscape is “highly volatile” with expectations that consolidation will continue.

Driven by the ambition to reduce costumer bills, Northumbria Water is turning its head to storage systems for peak shedding and uninterrupted power supply. The MW-scale storage project will use second-life EV batteries from Renault.

Australia’s New South Wales Government has launched its ambitious pumped hydro roadmap designed to back the rising level of wind and solar in the energy mix. Meanwhile, the board of government-owned energy provider Snowy Hydro has given the green light to its landmark $4 billion pumped hydro expansion project, Snowy 2.0.

Politicians take note: “The energy transition is not a question of technical feasibility or economic viability, but one of political will.” Indeed, according to a new study, it is possible to rapidly transition to a Europe 100% powered by renewables and with zero greenhouse gas emissions. Solar PV leads the charge, followed by wind. Overall, eight policy recommendations have been laid out to achieve this bold goal by 2050.

U.S. Senator Chuck Schumer is calling for permanent tax credits for clean electricity, storage and EVs as part of a set of demands for the form of any new infrastructure package. What does this mean for solar?

Another German car manufacturer has announced ambitious electric vehicle plans. Daimler AG says it has invested €20 billion in the purchase of battery cells to further advance its electric fleet.

The government regulator for gas and electricity markets in the United Kingdom has released updated guidance clearing up the confusion surrounding the installation of storage at households exporting solar to the grid. More still needs to be done though, argues the Solar Trade Association.

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.