Energy Storage

Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners has sharpened its focus on long-duration storage in Australia with the acquisition of the proposed Bowen Renewable Energy Hub project, which is expected to combine 1.4 GW of pumped hydro storage with huge solar and wind generation.

This year has witnessed upheaval in the global energy system as inflation, geopolitical conflict, and the reality of a changing climate continue to drive the transition to cleaner energy. Next year, these trends are likely to continue and accelerate as renewable energy adoption continues to grow and the inextricable link between energy security and national security is increasingly recognized. Alan Greenshields, of US-based iron-salt flow battery maker ESS Inc, offers four predictions for 2023.

Swedish startup POL has unveiled POL Lux, a catamaran boat design with dual electric motors and a solar canopy that can covert into a private sleeping area.

The Australian government has announced a $117.5 million (AUD $176 million) funding injection which it expects will unleash over $2 billion of investment in advanced battery technology, delivering a step change in grid-forming capability.

Wood Mackenzie says 96% of US grid-scale storage deployments in the third quarter occurred in Texas and California.

PV module prices have finally stabilized and a slight downward trend has even started to set in. Whether this will continue depends mainly on how demand shapes up over the next few months. The softening of prices reflects a gradual build-up of inventories which need to be drawn down again this year, if possible – even if it means slashing prices. But for other PV-system components, the situation is quite different, writes Martin Schachinger of solar wholesaler pvXchange.

German electric car manufacturer Sono Motors says it has failed to raise enough money from investors and is now trying to save its business by selling its Sion solar electric vehicles at a discounted price.

The UK government has publicly submitted a series of proposals for more efficient residential heating. One of them seeks to introduce requirements for all newly installed gas boilers to be “hydrogen-ready” from 2026.

The International Code Council and the Interstate Renewable Energy Council (IREC) have published a new handbook on installation codes, hardware standards, and lithium-ion risk-mitigation tools.

The Chinese Academy of Sciences has fabricated a kilowatt-scale aqueous redox flow battery with a capacity of 80 mA cm-2 over 500 cycles. The researchers claim that it is a promising candidate for large-scale energy storage.