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.
PV and sapphire materials equipment specialist GT Advanced Technologies (GTAT) said it would undertake a major reduction in its global workforce as it reduces expenses inline with a revised business plan ahead of expectations of emerging from Chapter 11 bankruptcy in the first quarter of 2016.
The US Department of Energy (DOE) has backed teams working on 11 new solar technologies based on micro-CPV (concentrated PV), awarding funding of between just under US$1 million and US$3.5 million to each.
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.
News in brief from the PV Tech Storage site: Australia gets its largest battery storage system to date, Tesla man persuaded to go back to Sonnenbatterie and Gildemeister installs PV-linked flow battery systems in Czech Republic.
Leading semiconductor equipment supplier Applied Materials (AMAT) has confirmed to PV Tech that it is to close its Precision Wafering Systems (PWS) wire saw business, headquartered in Switzerland and stop development on its ‘Solion’ ion implant product.
