Financial backing to support early development phases in battery storage and renewable energy projects has been found by Momentum Energy Storage Partners, a project development company launched by DNV GL’s former energy storage lead for the North Americas region.

Approval has been given to the compliance plans of two more US RTOs and ISOs to be filed under FERC Order 841, the ruling set by the US Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) designed to open up regional grid operators’ wholesale markets to electricity storage.

While research published this week demonstrates that the US as a whole is embracing energy storage technology, with regulator FERC’s recent wholesale market ruling likely to have a “significant impact”, the picture varies greatly when looking from state-to-state, an analyst has said.

Well, we seem to say it at the end of every year, but 2017 seemed a lot busier than 2016, 2016 was busier and more exciting than the year before that, and so on! There have been some hints already on what the industry and its observers expect to see in 2018 and we do not doubt energy storage will continue in its rise to become a flexible cornerstone of the world’s electricity infrastructure. In the meantime, let’s reflect on the top news stories of last year, as reported by Energy-Storage.News and based on readership statistics from you:

Major Japanese business and government entities have extended their involvement in energy storage with the announcement of the country’s first virtual power plants, an investment in a US frequency regulation project and partnerships on technology.

Even if the US withdraws from the Paris Agreement on climate change, economics and popular support for clean energy mean the industry will not lose its momentum, the chief commercial officer of Younicos has said.

Energy storage companies “have suffered significant and detrimental harm” from changes to rules governing the frequency regulation market in US regional transmission organisation (RTO) PJM Interconnection’s service area, the Energy Storage Association has said.

Energy storage solutions and software company Greensmith Energy has installed its software platform at an existing energy storage site of giant US utility American Electric Power (AEP).

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.

The US installed 41.2MW of energy storage capacity in the second quarter of 2016, up 126% from 18.3MW in Q1, according to the latest report from GTM Research.