SPH inverter and battery end users can easily store a maximum 11.4kwh solar power from their roof and use it at peak hours or when a blackout happens.

In a sign of things to come, California featured predominantly in May’s headlines with the news that it had set a new record for peak output of utility-scale solar at more than 10.5 GW. It also hit a new record for the instantaneous portion of demand met by renewable energy on April 28, at 73%, just 15 minutes before the solar record, with solar and wind alone meeting 64% of demand.

That’s not to be confused with just tapping ‘left’ or ‘F’ which will, instead, simply equip (or unequip) your light.

Two of the industry’s biggest inverter players also locked horns this month when SolarEdge filed a lawsuit against Huawei, alleging that the latter’s residential inverters use an architecture, which violates its patents. Huawei said it was “evaluating the claims”, however it does not believe it infringed any valid patent rights.

The company behind the floating solar photovoltaics projects is Sungrow Power Supply, a 22-year-old Chinese company that specializes in alternative energy hardware and services. Sungrow (CH:300274) trades on the Shenzhen stock exchange and claims to be the largest solar photovoltaic inverter manufacturer in China, with a North American subsidiary in Ontario. The company recently pushed into Japan, which first created the market and is reportedly home to the most floating solar power plants, though most aren’t much bigger than a koi pond. Electronics and ceramics manufacturer Kyocera (JP:6971) is considered the leader in floating solar farm systems in Japan.

Picture the scene: you’re about to embark on a long journey but just before you board your bus, train or plane, you realise your smartphone or tablet is low on battery. You find a public USB port nearby and plug in your device, hoping to get enough juice to see you through your trip. It seems like a pretty straightforward thing to do but public USB ports aren’t always safe and security experts warn that they could put your phone at risk.

Pivot Power, a London-based battery storage supplier and operator, will operate Arsenal’s battery for the next 15 years. But this could prove miniscule compared to what comes next, as the firm is also planning to roll out 50 megawatts of grid-scale batteries to homes across the United Kingdom. Forget Elon Musk’s house of the future — this could be the stadium of the future.

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Where many inverters in this space lag is in AC to battery efficiency. Outback, for example, is rated about 82 percent efficiency. Sol-Ark hits 96 percent efficiency because of a different methodology for pumping power in and out of batteries — a powerful 185 amp DC-to-DC charger.

Teri Maddox has been a reporter for 35 years, joining the Belleville News-Democrat in 1990. She also teaches journalism at St. Louis Community College at Forest Park. She holds degrees from Southern Illinois University Carbondale and University of Wisconsin-Madison.

The strategy to grow WA’s future battery industry was launched earlier in February, looking to rein in the state’s Li-ion battery manufacturing potential as one of the world’s largest producer of lithium and a leading producer of other battery metals including nickel, cobalt and rare earths.