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Delayed or cancelled shipments of project components, travel restrictions on personnel and ceasing direct customer contact are causing energy storage projects to be delayed, according to a survey by Energy Storage Association (ESA).

Around a third of respondents to the association’s poll earlier this month have experienced delays in delivering energy storage projects because of the coronavirus.

The US has set a new energy storage deployment record during the final quarter of the year as markets across all segments showed signs of growth.

The US energy storage sector deployed 186MW/364MWh of storage in Q4 to set a power capacity record last year, according to Wood Mackenzie and the U.S. Energy Storage Association’s (ESA) latest ‘US Energy Storage Monitor’ report.

Front-of-the-meter (FTM) applications took the lion’s share of the market for the first time in three quarters as deployment jumped 160% to 104MW in Q4 2019— or 56% of all quarterly deployments, in MW terms.

The non-residential BTM sector deployed 42.2MW in the final quarter of last year, its second-strongest quarter on record, while the residential market saw 40.4MW installed in the same time period.

Testing has begun on battery additive firm BioSolar’s second batch of commercial-grade prototype 21700 lithium-ion cells that use silicon anodes.

The US firm announced on 14 January that its technology partner had begun production and testing of the new cells that incorporate “additional cell design work”.

Battery maker Varta has bought back Europe-based Varta Consumer Batteries 18 years after selling it to US company Rayovac Corporation (latterly Spectrum Brands) for $262 million.

The German manufacturer completed the buy out of the company for an enterprise value of €180 million ($200 million) from US-based Energizer Holdings subject to a closing balance sheet to be prepared on the closing date. 

Liquid-air energy storage firm Highview Power Storage and project developer Encore Renewable Energy have announced plans to deliver a 50MW/400MWh system in the US— a first for the country.

This facility in northern Vermont will store excess power from renewables and resolve energy transmission challenges surrounding the state’s Sheffield-Highgate Export Interface (SHEI).