The Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA), has given utility company AGL Energy (AGL) the task of examining the business case for grid-connected energy storage in South Australia, with AGL to receive AUS$445,000 (US$390,000) of funding.

The US Department of Energy’s Sunshot initiative has announced US$15 million in funding to aid the integration of solar into the electrical grid infrastructure using energy storage systems.

In the UK, the National Grid has recently warned the government that its capacity to supply electricity is at a seven-year low due to recent generator closures, fires and outages. The margin of capacity over demand is expected to be just 4% this winter.

Nine companies conducting research and development projects in energy storage have partnered with, and are set to receive financial support from, the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA).

Singapore is set to create a US$25 million fund for energy storage, as part of a raft of strategic measures aimed at meeting “significant shifts” in the energy sector, which will also include investment in research for integration of solar and cutting times for grid connection.

India’s growing energy storage industry shares the enthusiasm of its solar counterpart in welcoming the Modi government’s aims and ambitions, according to one industry veteran.

German mechanical engineering company Manz has supplied a lithium-ion battery production line to a research centre for the commercial production of the batteries, initially for the e-mobility sector, at the Center for Solar Energy and Hydrogen Research Baden-Wuerttemberg (ZSW) in Ulm.

An “enormous” request for proposal (RFPs) put out by the Hawaii Electric Company (HECO) for up to 200MW of energy storage was responded to by more than 60 would-be developers.

One of the U.S.‘s largest investor-owned energy utilities, Consolidated Edison (Con Edison), is planning to spend US$200 million on demand reduction technologies. Con Edison has filed a proposal with the New York Public Utilities Commission for a Brooklyn/Queens Demand Management Program (BQDM) that it hopes can defer the US$1 billion cost of building a new substation and expanding two existing ones.

Energy storage might not be cost effective in Germany as a method of helping the transition to a higher grid penetration of renewable energy, until that penetration level reaches as high as 90%, according to a leading think tank.