Plans by Italy’s grid operator to allow for the interconnection of energy storage to the network have resulted in the country’s first grid-connected solar-smoothing storage facility being inaugurated.
A solar farm connected to a huge battery will be built on the Hawaiian island of Kauai to use solar in the evenings to meet peak demand, under a 20-year contract between SolarCity and an electric utility co-operative.
After dropping a series of strong hints – including those given in interviews with PV Tech Storage – Enphase has confirmed that its AC battery will be launched in Australia first.
Pakistan’s energy regulator, NEPRA (National Electric Power Regulatory Authority), has approved and put into effect net metering schemes for solar and wind generation of up to 1MW.
Two regions have dominated the energy storage market in the US for more than two years, but falling costs and better market design could see deployments spread across the country in future, an analyst with GTM Research has said.
Until clean energy is properly valued in the US, legislation-based storage procurement mandates and solar incentives such as the ITC will remain necessary to support low-carbon technologies like solar and solar-plus-storage, a prominent energy storage industry figure has said.
Lobbyists protecting fossil fuel industry interests including the Koch brothers have been criticised openly by Barack Obama this week for “standing in the way of the future” by attempting to hamper the progress of renewables.
Enphase claims it has continued its “aggressive growth” into the Oceania region with the formation of a distribution agreement with a wholesaler, distributor and training and support company in New Zealand.
Inverter manufacturer Ingeteam has been granted a €55 million (US$61 million) loan by the European Investment Bank (EIB) for its research and development of renewable energy.
The solar engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) arm of Sterling & Wilson, an Indian mechanical, electrical and plumbing services company, will install its first Philippines-based PV plant.
