ABB and BYD Co., Ltd., have announced the two companies will be working together on developing new solutions for energy storage.
ABB says the collaboration will accelerate the introduction of new solutions for electric vehicle charging and uptake of energy storage for off-grid/grid-connect renewable energy and marine applications.
“We are pleased to build on our achieved joint success and broaden our excellent cooperation with BYD. This next step will bring closer together two leading companies with highly complementary expertise and market access for electric energy storage,” said ABB Chief Executive Officer Ulrich Spiesshofer.
This won’t be the first time BYD and ABB have worked together. Earlier this year ABB announced a collaboration with Shenzhen BYD Daimler New Technology Co., Ltd. (BDNT) to supply direct current fast chargers for the DENZA electric car, which has an all-electric range of up to 300 km and a top speed of 150 km/h.
Switzerland headquartered ABB is one of the world’s largest manufacturers of solar inverters and also has an impressive pedigree in the electricity transmission sector, grid storage, electric vehicle charging and integrated marine systems. ABB solar inverters were recently used in Malaysia’s largest solar farm.
BYD is a China-based producer of electric and non-electric vehicles, energy storage systems and PV components. BYD employs more than 180,000 people and owns 12 industrial parks. The company recently signed a 65MW PV contract with Fotowatio Renewable Ventures (FRV) to supply solar panels for what will be Uruguay’s biggest solar farm.
Energy storage is in the early stages of a revolution such as was experienced with solar panels. The race is on to refine technology and grab market share – and the positive effect of that should be a fairly rapid reduction in price. Investment bank UBS released a report stating the payback time for unsubsidized investment in EVs, solar, and battery storage will be as low as 6-8 years by 2020.
Competition will be fierce – electric vehicle giant Tesla Motors recently announced it would be constructing its “Gigafactory” battery manufacturing facility in Nevada, USA. Tesla aims to achieve 50 GWh in annual battery production by 2020 – enough for 500,000 Tesla cars. It’s expected the technology developed at the Gigafactory will have flow on benefits for other energy storage applications, including solar.
Related:
