energy storage

The SEIA has filed testimony with the California Public Utilities Commission for SCE's grid modernisation proposal, arguing that it is 'premature, excessive' and undervalues solar and other DERs.

This week's Movers & Shakers segment features executive shuffles in energy storage companies and an O&M firm, while examining a new merger between Spain's Gamesa and Siemens Wind Power. Spain's Renewable Energy Association elects a new president for the next four years, and Jon Wellinghoff exits SolarCity amid the US$2 billion Tesla acquisition.

After new Secretary of Energy Rick Perry sent a memo to his chief of staff authoring a 60-day review of the grid to investigate how certain federal subsidies boost one form of energy at the expense of certain base load energies such as nuclear and coal, many industry observers believed him to be attacking renewable energy, but the SEIA claims this is not the case.

Arguing that energy storage is “critical to ensuring a resilient, reliable, cost-effective and sustainable grid”, the Energy Storage Association joined with 52 other organisations to plead the place of storage in the Trump’s administration’s infrastructure priorities.

San Francisco-based SunFunder is a solar finance business with a mission to unlock capital for solar energy in emerging markets. It primarily aggregates investment capital through its beyond-the-grid and Solar Empowerment funds, thereby giving accredited investors the opportunity to invest in their on-grid and off-grid solar portfolio. Andrea Griffin, SunFunder’s vice president of global business development, stopped by PV Tech to discuss investment, currency risk and energy storage in West Africa.

Yesterday the New York Public Service Commission (PSC) approved a new rate structure for distributed energy resources (DER) that is set to more accurately value and compensate for solar, while also boosting energy storage and community solar.

The Japanese PV market’s switch from a feed-in tariff (FiT) driven, mostly utility-scale phenomenon to one based on rooftops and self-consumption was in evidence at the PV Expo trade show in Tokyo this week.

SolarEdge is rolling out a new complete residential solution throughout Europe that combines inverters, storage and home automation. The idea is to manage and monitor electricity consumption, solar energy generation and storage through one central device control that enables enhanced energy independence and increases self-consumption.

As California’s municipal utilities are rapidly reaching their 5% net metering caps, the scope for residential solar becomes a harder sell.

In this week's Movers & Shakers segment, PV Tech focuses mainly on executive shifts in US solar companies involved in storage, trackers, residential loans and more. The African Development Bank is also revamping its management board, with a new head of Renewables.