Storage

UK energy regulator green-lights transmission network operator budgets for five-year period. Initial budget of GBP 10.3 billion ($13.7 billion) approved with an upper-bound estimate of GBP 70 billion transmission investment by 2031. At least GBP 44 billion of transmission spend has already been committed, according to the regulator.

Researchers in China developed a new compressed air energy storage system that uses flooded roadways in abandoned coal mines to store compressed air and heat for nighttime power generation. Simulations show the design can achieve 71.5% thermal efficiency, stable performance, and higher energy density at greater depths, with minimal long-term impact from air leakage.

A coalition of 18 California legislators has formally urged the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) to enforce regulations under “Rule 21” regarding the interconnection of customer-sited solar and energy storage systems.

The Norwegian industrial heat pump specialist said its HoegTemp system has a heat supply capacity of 0.2 MW to 5 MW and a coefficient of performance above 2 at high lifts.

NTPC has developed a standalone solar microgrid system that uses hydrogen as the storage medium to deliver 200 kW of round-the-clock power throughout the year. Designed to replace diesel gensets at off-grid Army locations, the system provides a reliable and sustainable power supply even in harsh winter conditions, where temperatures can drop to –40 C at an altitude of 4,500 meters.

Offered primarily as a 10 MW unit, the new product is also available in a 5.5 MW version for customers with specific requirements.

Only months after inaugurating the world’s largest sand battery – a 1 MW/100 MWh thermal storage system – Polar Night has committed to building a project twice its size.

Scientists in China have proposed a novel scheduling framework for microgrids based on hybrid PV and a small modular nuclear reactors. The framework uses multi-objective distributionally robust optimization with a real-time reinforcement learning mechanism and is reportedly able to reduce operational costs by 18.7%.

After last year’s slowdown, investment in China’s sodium-ion battery sector is rebounding in 2025, and one of the biggest projects yet has now entered the development pipeline.

The phasing out of net-metering for solar installations is incentivizing a growing number of citizens to install residential battery storage systems in the Netherlands. Analysts are predicting the upward trend will accelerate in the coming years.