Solar and Battery

Battery storage now looks like a bargain

The sun provides us generously with more than 5000 times as much energy as we need. Deserts alone receive solar energy in excess of 450 times our annual usage. When factoring in wind energy on top of this, we have access to an abundance of renewable energy - much more than humanity will ever be

IKEA shutters solar offering as result of FiT closure

Furniture giant IKEA closed its solar panel offering in the UK on 1 March citing the closure of the feed-in tariff (FiT). In a statement to Solar Power Portal a company spokesperson said the commercial proposition no longer stacked up. “At this point in time, we do not feel that the majority of new home

BNEF: Battery storage costs have ‘plummeted’ in past year

The average costs associated with building and operating large-scale lithium-ion battery storage arrays has fallen by 35% since last June, paving the way for more government and business support for the technology. That is a key finding of new research by Bloomberg NEF (BNEF), which claims that both battery storage and offshore wind have made

Battery Power’s Latest Plunge in Costs Threatens Coal, Gas

London and New York, March 26, 2019 – Two technologies that were immature and expensive only a few years ago but are now at the center of the unfolding low-carbon energy transition have seen spectacular gains in cost-competitiveness in the last year. The latest analysis by research company BloombergNEF (BNEF) shows that the benchmark levelized

Summer Outlook 2019: Solar PV stable but whole system approach now critical

National Grid expects minimum summer transmission system demand in 2019 to fall broadly in line with last year’s, owing to a collapse in new solar deployment. The Electricity System Operator (ESO) has also paid testament to its advanced, machine-learning forecasting tools, but said whole system thinking will need to become far more prevalent as the

Suppliers break cover with early solar export tariff replacements

A host of energy suppliers have unveiled solar export payment plans designed to replace the now defunct export tariff despite the government’s Smart Export Guarantee being months away from implementation. Yesterday Octopus Energy said it was going to “replace and improve” upon the export tariff by introducing a product which would pay consumers a flat

Octopus Energy to outdo export tariff with Outgoing product

Octopus Energy has sought to “replace and improve” upon the now defunct export tariff with its own iteration. The Outgoing Octopus tariff will replace the export tariff and financially reward its customers who generate their own panel and export what they do not use back to the grid. Octopus has launched two versions of Outgoing

Farewell FiTs: The view from the rooftops

The end is drawing ever closer for the feed-in tariff (FiT), marking the closure of another chapter in the solar industry’s history. By the end of this week, the FiT will be no more and the industry will instead look ahead to the promise of the Smart Export Guarantee (SEG) and a subsidy-free future. Whilst

Farewell FiTs: How the feed-in tariff gave birth to UK Solar

Nine years on from the beginning of the feed-in tariff and the solar industry is a changed beast. Larger, certainly. Wiser, perhaps. One thing is for sure, it has learned to thrive in the face of uncertainty and rampant adversity. The process to implementing a feed-in tariff (FiT) wasn’t the easiest, requiring lobbying of a

How residential energy storage could help support the power grid

Household batteries could contribute to making the grid more cost effective, reliable, resilient, and safe—if retail battery providers, utilities, and regulators can resolve delicate commercial, operational, and policy issues. The growth of battery storage in the power sector has attracted a great deal of attention in the industry and media. Much of that attention focuses

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