Batteries won big in the U.K.’s contest to provide power that can be dispatched quickly to help keep the electricity grid stable, a step that will help the nation expand the amount of renewable energy it’s using.
The companies that won National Grid Plc’s enhanced frequency-response tender include EDF Energy Renewables Ltd., Vattenfall AB, EON SE, Low Carbon, Element Power Ltd., RES and Belectric Solar Ltd. Of the 64 sites with storage units that bid, 61 were batteries, marking the first time National Grid will used the technology at that scale. They will supply electricity at 1 second’s notice.
Click Here to Read Full Article
read more
Two SDSU engineering researchers are using biochar, an inexpensive carbon-rich material and a new method of creating the porous surface needed to capture electricity to reduce the cost of supercapacitors. 
Energy storage deployment has been ramping up at a rapid pace across the country, mainly because it can reduce electric bills and cut utility expenses. It is now time to consider another key benefit of storage—public health, especially the power of energy storage to reduce pollution in marginalized communities.
HERNDON, Va.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Greensmith Energy, the leader in energy storage software and integration services, announced it will partner with E.ON Climate and Renewables and Tucson Electric Power (TEP) to design and deliver a grid-scale energy storage system located at the University of Arizona Science and Technology Park southeast of Tucson. The 10 megawatt (MW) site will provide frequency response and voltage control in addition to solar integration for a new 2 MW array.
A world leading large-scale solar and battery storage project in north Queensland has drawn interest from the world’s biggest miner, BHP Billiton, which says it is looking at the technology for its remote and off-grid mine sites.
The energy-storage goal of a polymer dielectric material with high energy density, high power density and excellent charge-discharge efficiency for electric and hybrid vehicle use has been achieved by a team of Penn State materials scientists. The key is a unique three-dimensional sandwich-like structure that protects the dense electric field in the polymer/ceramic composite from dielectric breakdown. Their results are published today (Aug. 22) in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS).
In a fast-developing industry teeming with technologies that promise to be the next big thing, energy storage appears to be the biggest.
US-based storage provider AES Energy Storage, a subsidiary of AES Corporation, has signed contracts with utility San Diego Gas and Electric (SDG&E) to install two energy storage arrays with a combined capacity of 37.5MW.
SDG&E was already bidding out storage projects when California regulators said they wanted to pick up the pace, allowing the utility to have the AES project on the table within months. The CPUC is pushing for expedited deployment to 
SAN DIEGO
