Singapore is set to introduce measures aimed at meeting “significant shifts” in the energy sector, including investment in research for integration of solar, cutting times for grid connection and the creation of a US$25 million fund for energy storage projects.
Japan’s Kyocera and energy service start-up Stem have become the latest partnership to offer integrated solar-plus-storage to commercial customers in the US, beginning with sales in three states including California.
The sudden withholding of grid access from renewable energy projects including solar is “unreasonable” and could bring “great confusion” to the renewable energy industry, the Japan Renewable Energy Foundation (JREF) has claimed.
The Japanese government has confirmed that it will review the current feed-in tariff programme for solar and wind, due in part to fears over lack of available grid connection and a bottleneck of large-scale projects.
Energy storage may not be cost effective in Germany in helping the transition to a higher grid penetration of renewable energy until that penetration level reaches as high as 90%, according to a leading think tank.