Dive Brief:
- Siemens Industry signed a deal Tuesday with Aquion Energy, an energy storage startup funded by Bill Gates, to integrate their respective technologies to develop microgrid and grid energy storage systems.
- The deal has Siemens taking Aquion's Aqueous Hybrid Ion batteries to test with its power inverter technology.
- Aquion is aiming to sell its batteries to commercial and industrial energy storage. Full commercial production is expected to begin in early 2014.
Dive Insight:
The Siemens/Aquion partnership may succeed in bringing to market a solution that could help drive down the cost of integrating renewable power to the grid. More robust electricity storage would address persistent concerns about the variability of wind and solar generation.
