VRB Power Systems Inc. (TSX-V: VRB) has just sold a 10kWh VRB-ESS(TM) to Eskom Holdings, one of the world's largest utilities based in South Africa.

Energy - or rather electricity - storage is critical for the breakthrough for alternatives like wind and solar that can provide only direct current unpredicatable loads of electricity, albeit at a fixed cost. What is noticable though is that high tech energy storage (like here) appears to be making far more of an impact as a UPS (uniterruptable power system) for hospitals, airports and as per here, telecoms infrastructure over diesel backup generators. This is because of their much faster start-up times. 30 seconds for the best diesel generator, well under a second for systems such as these.

Ideally, what we need to see is electricity storage systems (other than hydropower - reservoir storage) so scaleable that they can provide 100 Megawatts of power for eight hours flat and sell it into the spot market during the day. That really could work to bring down spot prices that can cripple industry.