Hawaii’s electricity regulator and main utility have recognised that customer-sited distributed energy resources (DERs), including rooftop PV and energy storage, can provide essential grid services and better visibility for network operators, the VP of Stem Inc's Hawaii operations has told Energy Storage News.
SMA is aiming to tackle the market for retrofitting energy storage systems in to existing home PV installations, with a new AC-coupled version of its Sunny Boy inverter suitable for high voltage batteries.
Corporations and utilities are already interested in energy storage but must collaborate to advance deployment and lower costs, avoiding some of the past mistakes of the PV industry, according to the heads of one California-based industry group.
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.
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.
