On Thursday, Gov. John Hickenlooper, D-Colo., signed into law a bill concerning the rights of electric utility customers to install energy storage systems.

Commended by the Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA) and the Colorado Solar Energy Industries Association (COSEIA), the legislation, S.B.9, allows Colorado residents to install and use energy storage on their property without unnecessary restrictions or discriminatory rates – in turn, helping the state’s solar market and jobs grow, the groups say.

Moreover, the legislation makes Colorado one of the first states to declare energy storage a “right” for consumers, according to the groups.

The bill was introduced by Sens. Stephen Fenberg and Kevin Priola and Reps. Faith Winter and Polly Lawrence. A summary from the Colorado General Assembly states as follows:

“The bill declares that consumers of electricity have a right to install, interconnect and use energy storage systems on their property, and that this will enhance the reliability and efficiency of the electric grid, save money and reduce the need for additional electric generation facilities. The bill directs the Colorado public utilities commission to adopt rules governing the installation, interconnection and use of customer-sited energy storage systems.”

“This new law cements Colorado’s status as one of our nation’s renewable energy leaders,” says Sean Gallagher, SEIA’s vice president of state affairs. “Pairing energy storage with solar will allow consumers to have the cleanest, most reliable and most affordable electricity. The solar industry thanks Governor Hickenlooper and the legislature for continuing to support the state’s solar market by taking this important step on storage.”

Lockheed Martin’s GridStar™ technology ensures that this power is rapidly dispatchable — a key benefit that allows Brunswick EMC to avoid peaking costs and pass the savings to its member-owners in Brunswick and Columbus Counties, as well as small areas of Robeson and Bladen Counties.

“These projects provide solar energy to our members and compound the value by delivering it exactly when we need it,” said Don Hughes, CEO/general manager of Brunswick EMC.

These 12 solar-plus-storage projects represent the first set of battery storage projects developed, constructed, financed and commissioned by Cypress Creek. Cypress Creek acquired the projects from United Renewable Energy, the initial developer of the projects.

“We are approaching a point where many newly originated solar projects will become solar-plus-storage by default,” said Brian Knowles, director of energy storage, Cypress Creek Renewables.

Roger Flanagan, director for Lockheed Martin Energy, added, “We are pleased to support Cypress Creek Renewables’ innovative solar-plus-storage projects. Energy storage is key to unlocking the true potential of renewable energy generation.”

Lockheed Martin’s GridStar™ Lithium energy storage systems are compact, easy to install, and scalable for 100 kW to multi-MW projects. GridStar™ system architecture consists of modular, purpose-built energy storage units that contain batteries, local controls software and all required balance-of-system components. The systems are certified to UL 9540 standards.

Energy markets are evolving incredibly fast. But while dynamism in the global energy sector is just cause for much optimism, it can also be tricky.  Prices are falling, but how far? And how fast? Rules are changing, but how quickly? And how exactly?

Back the wrong horse too early, and you may find yourself out-priced by your competitors, who have a better solution. Wait too long and hold off on decisions and you may miss out on interesting market opportunities while others gain valuable experience.

And if that wasn’t difficult enough, a wide range of ownership and operation models is available on the market. The hottest game in town: Energy-Storage-as-Service – or ESaaS for short. In fact, the list of purveyors of ESaaS has grown so long, that the concept warrants a closer look.

ESaaS isn’t wholly new: The idea that those in need of the many benefits that intelligent battery energy storage can provide would simply contract them rather than invest themselves was prominent already when, or rather because, energy storage was still relatively expensive. As prices continue to drop and storage starts to become an asset class of its own, it’s only natural that it attracts innovative infrastructure investors seeking stable returns and clean energy investments alike.

While this “financing case” or side for/of ESaaS is justified and sure to grow, there’s also the “purely temporary” dimension of Energy-Storage-as-Service that’s received much less attention.

So what exactly is “temporary storage” – and how is it different from the financing-based ESaaS models grabbing the headlines right now?

This week, Nissan and affiliate 4R Energy Corporation are launching a new initiative to give used Nissan LEAF batteries a second life as the energy storage banks for off-grid lights in a new effort called “The Light Reborn.”

The concept is very simple — bundle a solar panel, LED light, and battery into a self-supporting product that allows the solar panel’s daytime output to be stored in a battery that will then provide enough power to run the LED streetlight at night. BYD has offered products like this for years, but what makes Nissan’s push unique is that it makes use of used LEAF batteries.

The new product is a logical step for Nissan as the company looks for ways to utilize the most valuable assets in its electric vehicles — the batteries — after they have lived past their functional life in those vehicles (or been rendered scrap as a result of an accident).

The light product by itself is interesting and worth noting, but the really exciting news in this release is buried in the details. Nissan is making a bullish push into the energy storage business with a new 3-pronged strategy that hints at a new model for the company that echoes the strategies of other new energy companies BYD and Tesla. Building outward from the core of the batteries that power its electric vehicles, Nissan slid in 3 major bullet point graphics that speak volumes.

When combined with onsite solar production, the addition of large-scale batteries as residential energy storage units improves the durability and functionality of the home energy system. This message especially resonates with Nissan’s home audience in Japan due to its frequent and recently severe earthquakes, which have driven a high cultural awareness of the need for robust backup plans in the event of a natural disaster and inevitable power outages. There are wide-ranging knock-on effects from such outages. As one example, the power outage that came along with the Thomas Fire in my hometown of Ventura is believed to have contributed to the loss of water pressure in critical fire pumps, resulting in the loss of additional homes.

The energy industry is evolving towards more ‘enterprise platform’-based business models, enabling energy storage to play a vital role for businesses and the grid, NEC Energy Solutions (NEC ES) CEO Steve Fludder has said.

NEC ES, the NEC Corporation’s energy storage system integration and technology business, relies increasingly on machine learning and artificial intelligence (AI), Fludder said in an interview and presentation at last month’s Energy Storage Summit in London. Fludder took over as CEO in November, replacing temporary boss Hiro Ezawa, who in turn replaced longstanding leader Budd Collins.

These IT capabilities not only give NEC ES and its partners better visibility into system operation, Fludder said, but they also enable the company and others like it to capture value across the whole marketplace, making an analogy with the way that online retail giant Amazon uses predictive analytics to stock its strategically-located warehouses with the goods returning customers are most likely to purchase.

“This concept is actually happening around us all the time. You have cars that can tell you when they need to go in to be serviced, for example. I’m quite interested in the Amazon analogy, because that’s something that touches everyone every day. How do they do that? If they did that by building up massive amounts of inventory of everything that’s on sale on their site, they would never make money,” Fludder told Energy-Storage.News.

In his presentation that afternoon, Fludder had said Amazon, through mining data, AI, analytics and machine learning, “manages back into the supply chain in an optimal way” so that it only buys and stocks the goods its customers are most likely to want.

Northern Powergrid has called on electricity distribution network operators (DNOs), regulators and industry partners to work together to define the future of network-scale energy storage.

Speaking at two events across the country this month, senior team members from Northern Powergrid will address this hot topic.

“Energy storage has huge potential to change how the UK’s energy system works,” commented Patrick Ewin, policy and markets director. “The storage industry is growing rapidly and, in parallel, we are making the biggest changes to our power network since the 1970s. Evaluating how battery storage interacts with our network from household to utility level is a key priority for us as we seek to develop a truly customer-led distribution system. We welcome healthy engagement between DNOs, regulators and industry partners to present the best possible uses of energy storage on our network. Debate generated at events like those we are attending this week will be crucial to the advancement of this collaboration and the success of energy storage.”

One key area Northern Powergrid is looking at is the use of battery storage for increased resilience in areas that are susceptible to power cuts by nature of their geography – such as outlying coastal communities – and how to improve service for vulnerable people in these regions.

Northern Powergrid has a number of projects underway to develop understanding of the benefits that may be delivered by energy storage. In Darlington, it is operating a 2.5MW (5MWh) battery to maintain the electricity network at a stable frequency, providing balancing services to National Grid, and has also been providing services through the Winter to assist an energy supplier.

Northern Powergrid is also engaged in a trial project with home battery company Moixa that has seen batteries installed in 40 council owned homes in Oxspring village outside Barnsley. The trial is demonstrating how batteries can be used to manage peak solar output, reduce homeowner’s energy costs and avoid need for network reinforcement.