Energy Storage News

German power provider Eon and Italian electric utility Enel have traded electricity over a new market place, which uses blockchain technology. The business could be handled directly and in a matter of a few seconds, the German energy company said. There is no need for a central broker, which reduces the cost of electricity procurement. In the future, customers should profit from this direct electricity trading via Blockchain and thus from the cost reduction, continued Eon.

German car maker BMW will provide Vattenfall with 1,000 lithium-ion car batteries. Vattenfall will use the batteries, which are also used for the vehicle BMW i3, for storage projects at wind farms.

Move over Tesla. On Monday, AES Energy storage announced the completion of a 30 MW battery storage system in Escondido, Southern California. As verified by GTM Research, this is the largest lithium ion battery storage system in the world by megawatt-hour rating. And while this system is 50% larger in capacity than Tesla’s much-hyped battery system at Southern California’s Mira Loma substation, it has not received the press coverage that Tesla’s has. But this is not the only battery system that AES has commissioned, as the company also put online a 7.5 MW array in El Cajon. Both systems are based on AES’ Advancion System, which can work with multiple battery technologies.

Today Tesla Motors CEO Elon Musk announced that Tesla and SolarCity shareholders have approved the merger between the two companies, with 85% of unaffiliated Tesla shareholders voting in favor. This was the key hurdle before the acquisition could go through.This comes despite strong concerns by the investment community regarding the condition of SolarCity, which lost over $200 million in each of the last two quarters, and whose stock value never recovered after plummeting last winter.

It is undeniable that the energy storage industry is booming in markets across the world, as more people consider it the key to renewable energy integration. Swiss integrated energy storage solution company, Leclanché, is feeling the effects of this boom, and has now announced its first project in the U.S. The company was selected by Swiss Green Electricity Management Group (SGEM) to provider EPC contractor services and a turnkey battery storage system for the 20 MW Marengo Energy Storage Plant in Chicago. The project, developed by GlidePath Power, is a landmark project in the region, as one of the largest commercial battery storage projects in the country.

Younicos, the Berlin, Germany-based energy storage company, has signed an agreement to supply four of its plug-and-play storage solutions to one of Panasonic’s operations hubs in North America. The agreement will see the creation of a 1 MW/2 MWh system comprising four Y.Cubes – which are Younicos’ storage-in-a-box solutions developed specifically for commercial and industrial (C&I) installations.

Anglo-Australian mining company BHP Billiton has decided to review its portfolio in the face of the Paris climate accord and falling renewable technology costs, including the testing of solar and storage units at its mining site in Australia.

San Francisco has become the first city in the U.S. to approve such an obligation, which requires all new construction projects to have 30% of their roof space set aside for green roofs and/or solar panels, while one of the Californian city’s most iconic buildings also gets a solar makeover. Often considered the most progressive city in the U.S., San Francisco is continuing to pioneer environmentalist policy with its new green roof requirement. The scheme goes hand in hand with the drive for solar rooftops in the city, and was announced in the same week that one of the city’s famous “Painted Ladies” homes had a solar array installed on its roof.

A 270 MW solar tender offered by the Solar Energy Corporation of India (SECI) has been completed this week, with Essel Green Energy, a subsidiary of the Essel Group, winning the bulk of the available capacity. Essel Green Energy was awarded a contract for a 240 MW solar project in the eastern state of Odisha after agreeing to the reserve price set by SECI of Rs 4.43 per kWh ($0.067/kWh). The winners were chosen on the basis of the lowest viability gap funding (VGF) sought from the ministry. Essel Green Energy asked for a VGF of Rs 49.5 lakh/MW to secure the project.

In a noble effort to show European residents just how they could benefit from installing rooftop solar, Panasonic has launched its effective new online simulator in Holland. The company hopes that the new platform will make installing solar a non-brainer, even in areas of the country that are not blessed with high level of solar irradiation. The simulator is simple to use. Homeowners just need to stick in their address, their roof characteristics and their annual electricity consumption for a calculated estimate of how much they could save by installing a solar array on their roof. The “Simulate your Solar System” also outlines to users the other benefits of the PV array, such as its environmental impact, the benefits of energy independence, and how it will make their homes ‘future-ready.’

Battery storage, net metering, trackers and the integration of solar as part of the smart energy concept were big themes at this years’ Intersolar North America trade show. The 9th Intersolar North America trade show has concluded in San Francisco, marking another year of growth for the dynamic U.S. market, with a strong view to the future on the heels of the extension of the federal Investment Tax Credit.

China’s Sungrow, an inverter producer, has this week launched a joint venture (JV) with Korean firm Samsung to develop storage solutions for China’s energy sector.The Sungrow-Samsung SDI Energy Storage Power Supply Co., Ltd boasts an annual capacity 2 GWh of lithium-ion energy storage systems (ESS), power conversion systems and energy management systems, and is the result of a $170 million investment between the two firms.

Much of the dramatic growth of solar PV in recent years has been driven by rapidly falling costs, and now battery makers are feeling the heat to drive down costs in order to accelerate deployment. German distributed battery market leader sonnen today showed significant progress in that regard, unveiling a new battery product for the U.S. market which it says represents a cost reduction of up to 40% over its other models. 

SunPower has been busy in various areas of the solar landscape of late, most recently with the award of 76% of the French government’s tender for solar and energy storage technology in France’s non-interconnected zones (ZNI). It will be delivered across numerous projects, as the French government looks to find a sustainable solution for island electrical systems. The country’s Ministry of Ecology, Sustainable Development and Energy announced the tender last year, with the goal of “deploying solar energy which is particularly adapted to island electrical systems.” Energy storage was included in the proposal from the start, to manage fluctuating weather and to have flexible systems that can manage electricity consumption when demand is high.

Today U.S. President Barack Obama, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto are expected to announce a new continent-wide goal for the three nations to get 50% of their electricity from what they describe as “clean” sources by 2025.A fact sheet put out by the White House clarifies that this means renewable energy, nuclear power and carbon capture and storage technology, which has not been effectively commercialized at this time. Additionally, the White House has stated that energy efficiency will be a component of the agreement.

The U.K. Energy and Climate Change Committee, a parliamentary group including MPs from all parties currently in the UK Parliament, published its first report from the current session on Low Carbon Network Infrastructure on Friday. The report examined the three ways to tackle the variability in renewable power generation: energy storage, demand side response (DSR) and electricity interconnectors with foreign energy markets.

Big things are expected from the residential energy storage market, as it positions itself to take advantage of a shift towards residential solar and a rise in demand for electric cars. Canadian energy storage company, Electrovaya, is making a name for itself as a high-quality manufacturer of lithium-ion battery modules, beating off stiff competition to secure the signing of a Letter of Intent (LOI) for an estimated EUR199 million (USD223 million) of its modules.

Energy storage and smart grids have been touted as the future for national energy infrastructures, and the U.K. is now set to test out Renewable Energy Systems’ (RES) new energy storage systems to provide frequency response. RES has been working with the National Grid to create the systems, which are expected to be fully operational in 18 months. The battery energy storage systems developed by RES can provide a frequency response service in less than a second, making it the first in the country to have a sub-second timescale. The service is aimed at balancing the grid when energy is in high demand, and RES has said that it will be fully operational within 18 months. 

French renewable energy group EDF Energies Nouvelles commissioned a 50.1 MW PV power plant in the Negev desert, Israel. The company now operates 11 solar power facilities in the country, with the total installed capacity of 160 MW. EDF’s new Zmorot solar power plant is the largest among its PV projects in Israel. It is also the largest in the country to date, according to the local media. The PV facility in the Negev desert is comprised of 200,000 solar panels supplied by the EDF’s subsidiary Photowatt and installed across the area of 60 hectares. According to the developer, Zmorot PV plant generates enough electricity to cover the annual power needs of around 30,000 households. The generated power will be sold to Israel Electric Corporation for the next 20 years.

Using AUS$200 million from the CEFC, the Westpac Energy Efficient Financing Program will offer finance leases, commercial loans and commercial hire purchase finance for qualifying renewable energy and energy efficient technologies, as well as low emissions vehicles, the bank said on Tuesday. The program will provide customers from a range of sectors including education, health, aged care sectors, agribusiness, and state and local government with a 0.7 per cent per annum discount on finance for qualifying projects. The finance, which is for up to 100 per cent of the project cost, is available for terms of up to 10 years for individual projects starting at $15,000.

Renewables-friendly utility Duke Energy is set to augment its U.S. solar portfolio by a further 25 MW having begun construction on a large-scale PV plant near Tucumcari, in New Mexico’s Quay County. The 25 MW solar project has been acquired by clean energy producer Infigen Energy, and Duke Energy has already secured a 25-year power purchase agreement (PPA) with Western Farmers Electric Cooperative (WFEC).Swinerton Renewable Energy is the EPC contracted to build the solar farm, which will comprise 103,000 solar panels supplied by China’s JinkoSolar. Once complete, it is estimated that the solar farm will meet the clean power needs of 5,000 local households

Enphase Energy has announced that its distributors are now taking orders in Australia and New Zealand for its Enphase AC Battery. The two countries are the first places that Enphase is selling the energy storage system, as it tries to cement its place in international energy storage markets. The global energy technology company has a network of over 1,000 solar installers in the region, who can now order the Enphase AC Battery from the company’s officially certified distributors. Enphase made the decision to launch the battery in Australia and New Zealand before anywhere else after receiving positive feedback and interest from within the countries. The first shipment of the ordered batteries should arrive in Australia and New Zealand in August 2016.

GTM Research analysis of a Tesla filing shows that the company expects to sell a larger volume of batteries to Tesla than was represented by the entire behind-the-meter market last year. GTM Research has analyzed a regulatory filing by Tesla Motors, and calculates that the company expects to supply SolarCity with 116 megawatt-hours (MWh) of its lithium-ion battery products for behind-the-meter use in 2016. This is more than this entire market segment in 2015.

The Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA) has launched two innovative solar+storage projects, aimed at the residential sector, in Western Australia today. A groundbreaking ceremony was held for the Alkimos Beach suburban central battery system, and a truly groundbreaking solar+storage project for an apartment development was launched. While residential solar has bloomed in Australia, with the highest residential solar penetration rates in the world, supplying PV electricity to high-density accommodation residents remains a challenge. ARENA is providing funding to meet this challenge with a new project in southern suburbs of the Western Australian capital city Perth. Over 170,000 rooftop PV systems have been installed in Western Australia to date.