Utility Scale Storage

The country’s energy regulator will publish the auction’s final bidding terms in December. Projects awarded contracts under the auction will supply electricity under 15-year power purchase agreements for 2026-2040.

Iberlyzer will begin operations next year and will produce more than 200 MW of electrolyzers in 2023, with an initial investment of close to €100 million. In addition, the Spanish energy giant has signed an agreement with Norwegian company Nel to build and develop large electrolyzers in Spain.

Nanotech Energy plans to release a non-flammable, environmentally friendly lithium battery that can charge “18 times faster than anything that is currently available on the market.” And it aims to do it within the next year.

Hong Kong-owned UK Power Networks is aiming to commission 250 MW of grid flexibility from energy storage assets with capacities as small as 10 kW, on contracts ranging in length from six months to seven years.

Form Energy plans to deploy a 1 MW/150 MWh system with a Minnesota utility by 2023.

Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners and Hydrogen Renewables Australia have agreed to develop the 5 GW Murchison Renewable Hydrogen Project in Western Australia. It will use PV and wind to produce hydrogen fuel for export to Japan and South Korea.

Solarpower Europe has called on member states to put solar and battery storage front and center when it comes to drawing up the Recovery and Resilience plans needed to secure a slice of the bloc’s proposed €672.5 billion post-Covid stimulus package.

The in-country analyst has revised up its expectation for this year and says a healthy unsubsidized project pipeline will keep the numbers ticking over in 2021. The spending plans necessary to ramp up renewables targets in the next five-year plan, though, could put the nation on a collision course with the EU.

AGL, one of Australia’s biggest polluters, is working toward net-zero emissions by 2050, and aims to use big batteries to replace the spinning reserves of some coal and gas generators.

Spanish renewable energy company Abengoa will deploy a 3.5 MW solar micro-grid at a vanadium mining site operated by Bushveld Minerals in South Africa. The storage system will be provided by Austria-based storage specialist Enerox Holdings Limited.