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Texas has a new largest installed solar project, as Innergex Renewable Energy’s 315 MWdc Phoebe solar farm has been completed.

Panasonic recently launched their EverVolt home energy storage system, with an AC and DC coupled unit that easily can scale up to 34 kWh and, when coupled with their HIT solar modules, can power your home indefinitely if the grid goes down.

Modules and inverters and trackers, oh my! PV InfoLink sees as low as 21¢/W modules on the spot market, Kaco has released a series of 1000V and 1500V inverters between 87 and 150 kW, Mechatron’s dual axis tracker took the place of a carport, and Drone Magnetic Survey Company has figured out that there’s a niche finding old wells and metal under solar fields!

It’s Friday, and Friday is the day you get to see new gear! Ideal Energy has put out a great white paper on a solar+storage demand charge management project, 8minute Solar Energy talks up their advanced solar power plant software partners, and Northern Reliability Company shows off the beautiful energy storage gear they assemble.

The inverter manufacturer met expectations of growth, slowed down 4th quarter projections, talked of ramping Vietnamese and Hungarian facilities, and generally sounded healthy.

We were gone till November, now we’re here. The US Air Force is researching space based solar power, SimpliPhi has discounts on energy storage products for Californians, and ESS Inc has raised $30 million to help roboticize a 1 GWh/year capacity factory to build flow batteries in Oregon!

Energy storage has largely served at the margin of power grids over the past decade. But the continuing cost crash in wind and solar generation are changing storage’s role. A recent round of projects, from Indiana to Arizona, suggests that storage is bulking up and is set to act more equally in generation

In an emergency, every second counts. With this premise in mind, a team from Ohio-based manufacturer Nexceris set out to improve a warning system to protect lithium-ion storage systems from fires, after working with the U.S.
Navy on the response to a lithium-ion fire outbreak on a vessel 10 years ago.

Rocky Mountain Institute’s new predicts unprecedented battery storage development in the next decade and beyond. And, while li-ion will remain to be the tech that’s hot in the streets in the short term, the future is diverse.

Got new hardware tips? Send them to USA-Editors@pv-magazine.com. Mono-PERC module pricing is still nudging downward, Energy Toolbase has integrated Chint energy storage solutions into its software, and Jinko has a new module.