BIG SUN NEEDS BATTERIES

Utility-Scale Solar Driving Increased Demand For Energy Storage
2 May 2011 (Solar Industry)

"The demand for high-energy-density batteries is expected to surge to meet the needs of the growing number of utility-scale solar plants, and revenues for high-energy-density batteries for solar power storage are expected to reach $763 million by 2016…

"Solar power plants are already being heavily promoted by large solar panel firms in anticipation of lowered photovoltaic (PV) subsidies for consumers…and the solar energy industry is expected to use $953 million in energy-storage systems in 2016, rising to $1.5 billion in 2018."

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"In the wake of reduced feed-in tariffs for PV, large commercial users will want to better manage the energy they generate and sell back to utilities…[E]nergy storage will become a key part of this…[and] take sales of lead-acid and lead-carbon batteries for solar power storage to $465 million by 2016.

"The efforts toward re-engineering the lithium-ion battery to serve the smart grid are already showing signs of paying off in early solar energy-storage projects. By 2016, sales of lithium-ion and related batteries for solar energy storage will be worth $274 million…"