Although different energy storage technologies are often thought of as in competition with each other, it’s a case of all-hands-on-deck if we are to achieve deployment targets.
Standalone storage, demand from commercial and industrial (C&I) customers and new types of grid services will increasingly help drive growth in energy storage in the coming years, but the future mix between battery-based and alternative storage types is still unclear.
The first ever solar-plus-storage hybrid resources system in the Philippines is now in operation after energy company AC Energy (ACEN) switched on the site’s battery energy storage system (BESS).
Australian energy retailer Origin Energy intends to build a 700MW battery storage system on the site of a coal power plant for which it has brought forward a planned retirement date by seven years.
Thermal storage startup Antora Energy has raised US$50m from a group of investment firms including Bill Gates’ Breakthrough Energy Ventures to accelerate the development of its heat-based carbon block energy storage system for heavy industry.
San Jose Clean Energy, a non-profit electricity supplier in California, has celebrated the completion of a solar-plus-storage project which will ensure the delivery of carbon-free electricity during evening peak times.
California’s energy transition will need 53GW of solar PV by 2045, with the state’s transmission system requiring a US$30.5 billion investment alongside major increases in energy storage to accommodate the extra power.
Microsoft, Google and 10 other companies have joined the Long Duration Energy Storage (LDES) Council, a CEO-led organisation launched at COP26 in November to push for the global deployment of technologies that can store and discharge energy for eight hours or longer.
A clarification of the status of energy storage systems (ESS) in India’s power sector, issued by the government’s Ministry of Power, has described the various technologies as “essential” to achieving national renewable energy goals.