Storage

A company offering solar-plus-storage systems for the residential market has introduced a set of controls that allow consumers in the US to adapt to utility rates and legislative changes with the flick of a switch.

The Victorian government in Australia has confirmed plans to give a AU$ 0.30/kWh (US$0.23) payment to residential solar system owners that supply electricity to the grid during peak hours.

The participation of venture capital (VC) investors seems to have cooled, while project funding has conversely seen a sharp rise, in the latest quarterly report into funding and mergers and acquisitions from Mercom Capital.

India’s largest utility NTPC plans to set up 50MW of solar power projects combined with battery energy storage at Port Blair in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands.

The Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA) has committed up to AU$18 million in funding to build the first phase of a AU$120 million solar-wind-storage project by Windlab and Eurus that will deliver renewable energy on demand.

Tesla Motors and SolarCity are closer to combining their empires to form what could be the world’s largest solar and energy storage company, as the final referendum for the merger has been officially set for 17 November 2016.

California’s SolarReserve has announced plans earlier this week to build the world’s largest solar project – an up to 2GW US$5 billion concentrated solar power (CSP) plant in Nevada.

The PV commercial and utility-scale operations & maintenance (O&M) market has been growing in tandem with the growth in global installations. Once seen as an ancillary market, its presence and significance has taken on a new meaning in recent years and is providing innovations and business practices that only enhance the PV project market.

After the recent IPO, RWE’s renewable energy subsidiary Innogy has decided to expand into the US market, according to local reports.

Subject to regulatory risks and financing issues, the potential for solar deployment in Sub Saharan Africa is exponential, with the rooftop sector set to explode, according to Solarcentury’s Daniel Davies and other panel experts at this year’s Solar Energy UK | Clean Energy Live show.