With a surprise general election coming in June for Britain’s ballot-weary voters, Ian Larive of Low Carbon looks at the possibility of political flux interrupting the industry’s momentum – and why whichever party is victorious, they should back energy storage.
Italian energy company Enel has agreed terms to buy Element Power’s 12.5MWh battery storage project, which secured one of the most highly remunerated contracts in last year’s Enhanced Frequency Response (EFR) tender by the UK’s transmission system operator National Grid.
Energy storage has reached a point of commercial viability in the UK according to the chief executive of redT energy, who said the company had now reached “the right price” for an economic proposition.
Clearly, renewable energy is now a viable alternative to traditional generation from a cost perspective. However solar and wind’s penetration of the grid is constrained by ageing infrastructure, high grid connection costs and their intermittent, weather-dependent nature. Scott McGregor looks at how long-duration energy storage on an industrial scale can help.
Siemens has been contracted by German public utility Stadtwerke Schwäbisch Hall to deliver and install a 1.4MWh battery storage system to be used to market primary control reserves.
A consumer protection scheme for domestic renewables has revealed that it received at least one complaint a week during 2016 related to battery storage, half of which concerned mis-selling practices.
Younicos CEO Stephen L. Prince ponders the role of energy storage within the three ‘Ds’ revolutionising energy: digitisation, decentralisation and decarbonisation.
