Storage

The German energy storage provider has begun assembling batteries at the former Holden site at Elizabeth in Adelaide’s north. The company has already hired 50 full-time employees.

The battery will be made by assembling 78 second life battery packs from Nissan’s electric Leaf vehicles. The project is expected to help resolve imbalances in the electrical system of the autonomous city and improve quality of supply.

The French Environment & Energy Management Agency (Ademe) has published a report in which analyzes the dynamics of lithium supply and demand in different scenarios of global electrification by 2050. The agency experts are convinced that only with a 75% penetration of electric vehicles there is the real risk of a marked decrease in the safety margin of lithium supply.

The Federal Ministry of Economics has published further details of possible battery cell production on a gigawatt scale. At the Networking Conference Electromobility 2018 in Berlin this week, Minister Peter Altmaier stressed the urgency of the project, for Germany and Europe to be independent of Asia and the US in storage technology.

The Italian power provider has implemented its first pilot storage projects linked to solar. The system can provide grid services such as primary and secondary frequency regulation and tertiary and voltage regulation.

Zinc battery specialist NantEnergy has acquired the U.S. energy systems and services business from Japanese electronics giant Sharp. The acquisition, according to NantEnergy, will provide the company with an important foothold in the U.S. market and allow it to provide “energy as a service” business models, using its Zinc-air battery, in multiple markets.

At an event in London, a new tool was presented which lets the user track the UK storage landscape. The market is gaining traction amidst disfavourable policies for solar PV and other renewables from Westminster. The UK’s storage portfolio seems to be growing rapidly.

The inverter maker took number one spot in the US from SMA this year, and acquired majority stakes and IP in uninterrupted power supply company Gamatronic and storage system provider Kokam. While other companies have consolidated, SolarEdge managed to report robust results.

Local authority West Sussex County Council has commissioned the 7.4 MW Westhampnett Solar Farm, co-located with a 4.4 MW lithium-ion battery. The project was built without government subsidy, according to the council, and is expected to deliver significant income over its 25-year lifetime.

Tesla energy storage deployments grew 18% and storage deployments grew 11%, as the EV + battery + solar company achieves its a long-awaited quarterly profit on the success of its Model 3.