Last year saw large-scale storage come of age in the USA and Canada, with some heavyweight storage portfolios starting to take shape. Speaking to four leading North American developers, Andy Colthorpe takes the pulse of a market poised for growth.

In just the past few days, nearly US$500 million has been committed to downstream activity in the battery energy storage space, with AES Distributed Energy raising US$341 million of debt financing and EsVolta US$140 million of borrowing.

Fotowatio Renewable Ventures, a developer of renewables with 1.9GW of projects to its name, has announced its first grid-scale battery project as it embarks on a global energy storage push.

ZEN Energy’s newly appointed chairman has said he believes there is a “great future for energy-intensive industries in Australia,” as his company approved a 1GW plan for dispatchable renewables aimed at South Australia’s commercial and industrial sector.

Swiss battery manufacturer Leclanché has reported an increase in revenues for 2016 of 56% compared to the previous year, netting unaudited preliminary revenue of CHF28 million (US$27.66 million) for the calendar year.

While Brexit – the impending departure of the UK from the European Union – looms, bringing uncertainty into the country’s economy and international relationships, the role energy storage will play in a decentralised, low(er) carbon and more flexible energy system at least seems a little more assured than it did before.