A solar-plus-storage project in New York which has just been completed is the first community project of its type and should help lower electricity costs for participants by 10% for the next 25 years.

More than 500 residential energy storage batteries will be aggregated into a virtual power plant (VPP) by US utility Portland General Electric (PGE), with some participating households offered US$5,000 rebates on battery system purchases as well as money off their monthly electricity bills.

Solar industry veteran and PV Tech blogger Edgar A. Gunther was told by the New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy’s office that clean energy legislation proposed for the state is “on his desk” but appear to be no closer to receiving his approval.

NextEra Energy Resources and utility Salt River Project (SRP) have completed the Pinal Central Solar Energy Center in Arizona, an integrated PV plant equipped with a battery system that will store energy and allow SRP to provide power to its customers.

Kicking off with an unprecedented wave of policy commitments, 2018 promises to be an exciting year for energy storage in New York State. William Acker at NY-BEST explains what’s going on – and what should happen next.

Trade associations NY BEST and the Energy Storage Association have been quick to applaud New York Governor Andrew Cuomo’s historic setting of a 1,500MW energy storage procurement target for his state.