Cheap at Last, Batteries Are Making a Solar Dream Come True

The first solar-plus-storage installations started about a decade ago on a small scale in sunny states like California, Hawaii, and Arizona. Now they’re spreading across the country, driven by falling prices of both solar panels and lithium-ion batteries. “This is not just a California, New York, Massachusetts thing,” says Kelly Speakes-Backman, CEO of the Energy Storage Association, an industry group in Washington. She says more than 30 states have renewable storage on the grid. Utilities have proposed and states have approved 7 gigawatts to be installed by 2030.

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Florida Utility Puts $700 Million to Work for Solar and Storage

Duke Energy Florida, a subsidiary of Duke Energy, has completed a $700 million debt issuance for the utility’s first green bond, which will finance eligible green energy projects, including the development, construction and procurement of solar generation and utility-scale battery storage projects in the state.

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US Storage Market Rebounds as Outage-Scarred California Promises Big 2020 Growth

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Colorado Utility Sees “Opportunistic Window” to Save Money with Solar and Wind Plus Storage

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Wärtsilä to Provide Full Energy Storage Solution for One of the Largest Power Hybrid Projects at an Off-Grid Mine in Mali

The technology group Wärtsilä will optimise the energy system of the Fekola Mine, located in a remote region in southwest Mali. This is needed to improve the mine’s operations, reduce fuel consumption, and lessen the carbon emissions. Wärtsilä has been contracted to design and engineer a cutting-edge 17MW/15MWh energy storage system based on the company’s GEMS energy management solution. 

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Renewable Energy: What Happens When The Sun Isn't Shining And The Wind Isn't Blowing

Northfield Mountain Power Station in Erving, Mass. is the old school solution to how the grid handles energy shortages, and one of the state’s oldest batteries. Northfield Mountain may not be what you think of when you picture a battery. The station is located inside of the mountain and operates by pumping and releasing water between a reservoir on top of the mountain, and the Connecticut River that runs at the mountain’s base

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Convergent Announces the Completion of 21 MWh of Energy Storage Projects at Two Shell Facilities

Convergent Energy + Power (Convergent), a leading independent developer of energy storage solutions in North America, today announced that the 21 MWh of industrial battery storage systems under construction at two Shell Canada Products facilities in Ontario are now operational. Convergent is the largest operator of energy storage solutions in Ontario with over 40 MW in service. The energy storage projects are a joint venture between Convergent and Shell New Energies, designed to reduce the consumption of energy for the facilities by one-third of typical demand while increasing the reliability and long-term sustainability of the grid. 

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How Alternative Storage Solutions are Breaking into the Lithium-Ion-Dominated Market

Recent growth in renewable energy, spurred by state mandates, federal tax incentives, and increasingly attractive costs, has shifted attention to the use of energy storage to ensure that variable wind and solar generation reliably serve load and provide ancillary services. In this domain, lithium-ion currently dominates. But some analysts don’t see it as economically-efficient enough at scale to fully support the amount of renewable energy expected to come onto the grid, and other options are on the rise, including rail-based gravity systems, hydrogen and flow batteries.

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US Storage Industry to Build on Strong Third Quarter with Response to Power Shutoffs

The United States energy storage sector had it strongest third quarter on record this year, deploying 100.7 megawatts (MW) and 264.6 megawatt-hours (MWh) of storage. The front-of-meter (FTM) market rebounded after its slump with 161 MW deployed, and the residential storage market kept up recent momentum, slightly outpacing second quarter deployment levels to deliver a new record for quarterly residential deployments.

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Hydrostor and NRStor Announce Completion of World’s First Commercial Advanced-CAES Facility

Hydrostor, the world’s leading developer of Advanced Compressed Air Energy Storage (A-CAES) projects, in partnership with NRStor Incorporated, a diversified Canadian energy storage project developer, announce the completion of the Goderich A-CAES Facility, located in Goderich, Ontario, Canada. The plant represents a pivotal advancement in long-duration energy storage and a world first in the successful commercialization of fuel-free (adiabatic) CAES technology. 

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