Solar developer SPI Energy has invested around US$4.6 million in an electric vehicle rental service in China, with the company expected to build branded charging stations and leverage its PV business to finance its growth.
A team of teachers volunteering to educate refugees and displaced peoples among the camps of Calais in northern France, will power a mobile school with a solar-plus-storage system.
Valentin Software will launch the next generation of its design software PV*SOL premium at the end of 2015. New features are designed to make the process of designing a PV system easier and faster. The shading analysis of roof and ground-mounted systems in 3D mode remains the central feature as it calculates how often the modules are covered by shade, and how this affects the system yield, presenting the results graphically. All shading objects can be freely selected and placed anywhere on the ground or building.
The former VP of Solar Grid Storage has predicted average Balance of Systems (BoS) costs for energy storage will drop from around US$670 to less than US$400 per kilowatt in the next five years.
The first Tesla Powerwall home energy storage systems to go on sale in the US through a utility are being sold through Vermont’s Green Mountain Power which is including a “no upfront cost” option for its customers.
Thin-film manufacturer and developer First Solar is among the investors in a US$50 million funding round for grid-scale storage specialist Younicos, with the money raised set to fuel the latter’s expansion.
A 3MWp solar power plant connected to energy storage has been completed at Antigua’s VC Bird International airport, part of a wider 10MWp project for the island.
The eligibility of energy storage systems for a programme financing energy efficiency and renewables through property tax assessment shows that the technology is maturing rapidly, according to the CEO of the North American arm of Sonnenbatterie.
A trade association representing some of Germany’s energy storage industry has welcomed the renewal of a support scheme for batteries, but says that establishing “fair market conditions” for storage would be more important.
Sonnenbatterie, Germany’s market leader for residential energy storage, has launched an energy trading platform that the company believes in time could make it even bigger than today's existing utility companies, rebranding as Sonnen in the process.
