Grid

A new heat-to-energy converter has reached a record efficiency of 44% – the average steam turbine manages about 35%, for comparison. This thermophotovoltaic cell is a major step on the way to sustainable, grid-scale renewable energy storage.

Smart energy tech developer SolarEdge is inviting thousands of home battery owners to join Britain's first Battery Virtual Power Plant, where stored energy will be used to help stabilize the grid during peak demand events.

California is set to be home to two new compressed-air energy storage facilities – each claiming the crown for world’s largest non-hydro energy storage system. Developed by Hydrostor, the facilities will have an output of 500 MW and capacity of 4 GWh.

The wheels are beginning to turn on an innovative new energy project in the UK. The 250-MWh CRYOBattery uses a cryogenic cooling technology to turn ambient air into liquid, which can then be used to store and release energy over long periods of time.

Lithium-ion batteries aren't necessarily the best choice for grid-scale energy storage. Researchers at MIT have outlined a new system they call a “sun in a box,” which stores energy as heat in molten silicon and harvests it by tapping into the bright light it emits.

With a focus on storing energy from intermittent renewable sources such as wind and solar, Swiss company Energy Vault has just launched an innovative new system that stores potential energy in a huge tower of concrete blocks, which can be “dropped” by a crane to harvest the kinetic energy.

​Researchers at the University of Warwick have demonstrated a new “smart grid” system whereby idle electric vehicle (EV) batteries could power large buildings, while still having enough power to complete the vehicle's daily journeys.

Constructing a commercially viable battery from cheap materials has proven an elusive goal. Researchers from Stanford University hope to solve the puzzle with the introduction of an aluminum-ion battery that uses an electrolyte made of urea, the main component of urine (after water).

The California utility, San Diego Gas & Electric (SDG&E), has begun a pilot program that bids energy resources from fleets of electric vehicles and storage systems into the state’s wholesale power market.

According to a new study, a large network of concentrated solar power plants in two of the world's deserts would be able to consistently run at 80 percent or more of maximum capacity throughout the year regardless of time of day, season, or weather conditions.

It's easy to assume that renewable wind and solar energy should be stored when production exceeds what the grid is using. But scientists at Stanford have done the math to find when storing energy is better than "wasting” it, and their findings aren't necessarily as you'd think.

Crowdfunding has come to the small wind generation field with an Indiegogo campaign for a small wind generator intended for an interesting target niche: clipped onto solar panels.