Battery-based energy storage could provide up to 13 different services to the US electricity grid, while the usefulness of the technology increases the more ‘distributed’ it is along the system, according to a new report.
Multinational conglomerate corporation GE has announced Current, a new energy company that combines GE’s LED, solar, energy storage and electric vehicle businesses with its Predix platform to single out and provide cost-effective and efficient energy solutions to customers.
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.
Nano-electronics research centre imec continues to tout its solar cell R&D work in the PV industry but is also focusing efforts on new areas such as PV energy yield predictions at the European PV Solar Energy Conference and Exhibition (EU PVSEC) in Hamburg this week.
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.
Major monocrystalline wafer producer Longi Silicon Materials has signed land and development contracts with the Yinchuan Economic and Technological Development Zone Management Committee to build a 3GW monocrystalline silicon facility in Yinchuan City, Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region, China.
The precarious financial position of major tier-one PV manufacturer Yingli Green was further highlighted in its second quarter financial results and subsequent earnings call with financial analysts.
GCL Poly is in the process of selling off its non-solar businesses and will emerge from a proposed US$500 million sale to focus on polysilicon and wafer manufacturing and sales, as well as PV plant development.
Brazil must establish a “specific industrial policy” for domestic PV manufacturing so it can produce the 2GW of solar equipment necessary to operate 61 solar plants planned for 2017, according to the Brazilian Association of Photovoltaic Solar Energy (Absolar).
