Energy storage start-up Stem says it sees a “strong opportunity” for expansion of its business in Australia, Japan and the EU and is especially focused on the potential of aggregated 'virtual power plants', in the week when the company closed a US$12 million funding round led by Japanese trading company Mitsui & Co.
Japan’s largest solar farm to date will be supplied with around 116MW of modules from vertically integrated Chinese tier-one manufacturer and project developer Trina Solar, it was announced this morning.
Arizona’s largest public utility company is seeking the green light to significantly raise fees levied on households with rooftop solar systems to help pay for the local grid network.
Research into energy storage and related technologies has been given a boost in the US in the past few days, with a major utility company committing funding in Indiana for renewables integration and New York’s governor announcing the creation of a research facility.
The UK has experienced its annual surge of activity for developers to complete and connect solar farm projects in time to receive financial support under a scheme that has now partially expired.
SunPower has made a deal to allow its commercial and industrial users the benefit of access to energy intelligence software made by EnerNOC, a US developer of cloud-based energy management and demand reduction solutions.
SKI Corp, Japanese a mobile phone sales agency, has signalled its intent to build a 24MW solar farm in the west of Japan and to borrow ¥8 billion (US$67 million), for the purposes of doing so.
The cost of solar in Japan declined as much as 15% in one year, but a lack of clear policy direction from the government has left a number of businesses with a “pessimistic” outlook of the industry’s future, according to a survey by the Japan Renewable Energy Foundation (JREF).
Japan has confirmed it will make big cuts to the feed-in tariff (FiT) payable for solar, which have been expected for some time, dropping the rate by around 16%, from ¥32 (US$0.27) per kWh to ¥27 per kWh by July.
Kyocera is targeting the German market for self-consumed solar electricity, with the Japanese company preparing to launch a home energy storage system in May.
