North America

Nearly 1.4 GW of battery energy storage capacity is under construction and slated for delivery in the United States during 2021, according to data from FERC and DOE.

The strategy includes accelerating the transition of technologies from the lab to the marketplace, focusing on ways to manufacture technologies at scale in the United States and ensuring secure supply chains to enable domestic manufacturing.

IHS Markit released a white paper in which the analyst outfit shared some predictions for the power electronics market. First and foremost, inverters will become smarter, and after some power outages in key markets, these devices are gearing up to take on more grid stabilising tasks, which hitherto had been reserved for synchronous generators.

The tracking industry’s second-largest player has signed an agreement to supply RP Construction Services with 1 GW of single-axis solar trackers just 20 days after coming to a 1.4 GW agreement with Lightsource BP.

Allume Energy’s SolShare technology equitably spreads the solar love among residents of community housing and apartment buildings that can install PV on top. It has just achieved the certification that will let residents of “multi family units” across America enjoy the benefits of renewable energy.

The election of Joe Biden as U.S. president is set to heap further pressure on Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison to lay out a clear and firm strategy charting the nation’s transition to a clean energy future.

San Francisco has now joined other US cities in banning natural gas in new homes. The move is in stark contrast to the direction of energy policy in Australia, where the Morrison government seems stuck in reverse: spruiking a gas-led economic recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic.

Scientists in the U.S. examined the use of different conductive filler materials in a lithium-ion battery electrode, finding that adding single walled carbon nanotubes to a nickel-cobalt-manganese cathode resulted in better electrical conductivity and higher rate capability for the overall battery. The results, according to the group, could provide new insights into design of high power, high energy battery electrodes.

It’s been a busy couple of months in global energy and climate policy. Australia’s largest trading partners – China, South Korea and Japan – have all announced they will reach net-zero emissions by about mid-century. In the United States, the incoming Biden administration has committed to decarbonising its electricity system by 2035.

“We need a ‘deployment’ energy secretary,” Generate Capital President Jigar Shah said several years ago. “One who understands how entrepreneurs move from research to revenue. One who understands the difference between venture capital and project finance.”