Energy Storage News

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.

Finnish provider of energy solutions Wärtsilä has signed an agreement to acquire Greensmith Energy Management for an undisclosed sum. According to a company announcement, the acquisition of the U.S.-based provider of intelligent energy storage technology and solutions will enable Wärtsilä to expand its business in energy storage and to position itself on the global energy system integration market. The transaction is yet to be confirmed by U.S. regulatory approvals/authorities, but rumours have been circulating for months. It follows a recent trend of large firms taking over small but growing energy storage companies.

The popular California Public Utilities Commission program will start receiving applications today for distributed energy projects that incorporate energy storage.

In 2007, KEA set a goal to produce 95 percent of Kodiak’s energy from renewable sources by 2020, to reduce reliance on diesel fuel and lower the cost of generation to customers. Today, the island has achieved that goal through a combination of hydroelectric and wind energy, KEA officials say. The new batteries will permit greater harvesting of wind potential.

Secretary of Energy Ernest Moniz fondly described solar’s rise from a niche market to a U.S. energy supply mainstay in his exit memo, his last statement before he leaves the office. Moniz, who oversaw such successful programs as the department’s Sunshot Initiative the Department of Energy (DOE)’s successful Loan Program, said the amount of solar powering U.S. homes, businesses and military installations has increased from 1.2 GW to 31 GW in 2016.

Southern California Edison (SCE) is awaiting approval from the California PUC for the third unit within its 27 MW of lithium-ion storage plans. The utility filed in late December with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission for a Generator Interconnection Agreement with the third of the three, the PPA Grand Johanna LLC for a 2 MW/8MWh storage project called Grand Johanna.