pv magazine reached out to companies that are active in the microgrid segment for details on the market and its latest tech developments. What follows is a look at some of the most interesting projects from across the globe.
Plummeting costs, industry maturity, and the ever-increasing penetration of global renewables are expanding the use cases for battery storage technology. Over the past year and a half, storage projects are increasing significantly in both scope and capacity.
Significant expansion in energy storage markets is poised to occur against a backdrop of regulatory changes in federal and state incentive programs, cost improvements and advances in monetization of energy storage. These current and anticipated trends affecting the U.S. energy storage market will have a significant influence on how industry participants choose when, where and how to invest in and develop energy storage technology.
Last year was record-breaking for global energy storage deployment. The non-residential segment overtook the residential sector for the first time, with half of the 3.3 GW capacity installed in front of the meter, according to market analysts Wood Mackenzie. The drive toward large, utility-scale projects has been the single most noteworthy change for the industry over the last 12 to 18 months, with storage projects now exceeding 100 MW for four-hour durations.
Stem, Inc. has announced new collaborations with Urban Energy Solutions, LLC and SunGreen Systems to use Stem’s artificial intelligence (AI), Athena, in intelligent solar + storage solutions in Arizona and California. These projects represent Stem’s entry into a sixth U.S. state and the continued high growth of solar + storage momentum across the country.
Enphase Energy, Inc. (NASDAQ:ENPH), a global energy technology company and the world’s leading supplier of solar microinverters, today announced that Momentum Solar, a top U.S. residential solar contractor and Inc. 500 fastest-growing private company, has chosen Enphase to be its exclusive inverter supplier. Momentum Solar is one of the fastest growing home solar service providers in the U.S. with operations in New Jersey, New York, California, Florida, Texas, Connecticut, and Pennsylvania.
The United States is entering its tenth year of the renewable energy revolution and there’s no slowdown in sight, only more adaptation. Over this time, clean energy jobs have grown 12 times faster than the overall job market, and renewables was one of the very few growth areas during the 2008 recession. The last two years have been no different, with both solar and wind growing at over 20% annually. Compare this to coal which has shed jobs for its fifth consecutive year. At a recent industry conference, a Colorado legislator said that his state is eliminating coal energy at an extraordinary pace—formerly, coal comprised two-thirds of the energy generated, now it is about 50%, and major goals are in place to reduce it to only 25% in a short period.
