The U.S. commercial energy storage segment is growing faster than both the residential and utility-scale segments. GTM Research’s latest report provides an economic analysis of the U.S. commercial storage market and finds that commercial storage is financially viable in just a handful of markets today. However, the report notes that by 2021, commercial storage will make economic sense in more than a third of U.S. states.

Click Here to Read Full Article

Ever since electric carmaker Tesla announced plans to build a battery plant outside Reno, Nevada, investors, fans of Elon Musk‘s company and others around the world have started paying attention to the silver state’s large lithium deposits.

Lithium is a key component in the production of batteries used in cell phones and electric vehicles. As sales of electric vehicles, which topped 500,000 worldwide last year, increase, so is demand for lithium.

Click Here to Read Full Article

SPARKS, Nev.— Tesla Motors Inc. is scrambling to finish building its massive $5 billion battery factory here years ahead of schedule to meet demand for its coming cheaper sedan and provide power for new types of vehicles Chief Executive Elon Musk says are under development.

Tesla has doubled the number of people constructing the “gigafactory,” which sits on more than 3,000 acres near Reno. Now, 1,000 workers build seven days a week on two shifts in an effort to start churning out lithium-ion cells by late 2016.

Click Here to Read Full Article

Bloomberg New Energy Finance recently compared the growth of lithium-ion energy storage systems to the solar photovoltaic industry; finding that some 12 years will be needed before the total ESS output can meet today’s solar output (provided of course that was the goal of today’s solar industry).

The biggest ally of energy storage, giving the segment enough momentum to narrow the gap with PVs is of course, electric vehicles, which help to drive up the scale of production for lithium-ion batteries, and enables faster cost reductions.

Click Here to Read Full Article

E.ON Climate & Renewables North America is to build a 10MW battery energy storage facility with a 2MW solar array in collaboration with Arizonan utility Tucson Electric Power (TEP). The Iron Horse Battery Energy Storage Project is expected to be completed in the first half of 2017.

The grid-scale facility will provide frequency response and voltage control, and will be situated adjacent to the University of Arizona’s Science and Technology Park, southeast of Tucson.

Click Here to Read Full Article

The economic viability of commercial and industrial energy storage will grow rapidly in the United States over the next five years as storage costs continue to fall, according to a new report from GTM Research.

The report estimates that the economics for commercial energy storage could be attractive in as many as 19 states by 2021, up dramatically from the handful of states where commercial storage is economically attractive today.

Click Here to Read Full Article

The energy storage market is one of the most exciting and fastest growing new industries in the utility space right now. The market grew by several hundred percent last year, and it looks likely that it will grow by a similar amount again this year.

Still, this is a market in its infancy and many market participants are still figuring out the economics. Those economics are set to get a boost thanks to an energy storage tax bill that is making its way through the U.S. Congress right now.

Click Here to Read Full Article

Ten years ago, Elon Musk outlined Tesla’s “secret” master plan to scale up its automotive business by building progressively cheaper vehicles, while also calling Tesla a “side project” to Musk’s space exploration company SpaceX. Much has changed since then, and in hindsight it’s difficult to argue that Tesla failed at this mission: The Model S beat its competition in the high-end luxury segment, and the premium mass-market Model 3 is set to debut at a base price of US$35,000. Following the company’s success thus far on implementing its first master plan, it’s no surprise that Elon Musk’s announcement that he was working on a second plan was met with great anticipation. Well last week he did release that plan, and it included autonomy, solar power, some vehicles we expected, and some vehicles we didn’t.  

Click Here to Read Full Article

In its latest report, The Economics of Commercial Energy Storage in the U.S., GTM Research analyzed rate structures across 51 utilities to determine the opportunity for demand charge management for commercial energy storage customers. According to the report, commercial energy storage economics are attractive today in seven U.S. states. And that number is expected to grow to 19 states by 2021.

Click Here to Read Full Article

Shortly after announcing a new residential energy storage product, Sonnen did it again with a commercial one — the sonnenBatterie pro. The system ranges from 18 kW / 24 kWh up to 90 kW / 240 kWh. It employs Ideal Power’s 30 kW Power Conversion System. An Ideal Power inverter is included, as is energy management. Hotels, restaurants, and office buildings are referenced on the Sonnen site as suitable places where the system would be effective. Peak shaving and integration with solar power are two of the main benefits.

Click Here to Read Full Article