We hear from XL Batteries and Quino Energy, ‘organic’ chemistry flow battery technology companies, about how they plan to scale up and reduce costs to compete with lithium-ion. 

Finnish marine and power technology firm Wärtsilä has ended an 18-month long strategic review of its Energy Storage and Optimisation (ES&O) business, a process which could have led to the firm divesting it.

Sumitomo Electric has followed up the US launch of its newest vanadium redox flow battery (VRFB) technology, announcing a deal in Japan.

Utility Pacific Gas and Electric (PG&E) has announced intent to award up to US$43 million in grant funding for nine new community-driven microgrids in California, US. 

A double helping of big energy storage news items in Poland, with the government launching a capex support scheme for grid-supporting BESS and state-owned power producer PGE revealing its long-term deployment plans.

Suitable energy storage project sites are quickly being snapped up in Australia’s National Electricity Market (NEM), with a premium on grid location.  

Independent power producer (IPP) Innergex Renewable Energy’s 30MW/120MWh Hale Kuawehi battery energy storage system (BESS) project has reached commercial operations.

California-headquartered developer esVolta has acquired a 150MW/300MWh standalone BESS in Texas, US, from Black Mountain Energy Storage (BMES).

Investor Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners (CIP) has partnered with GCSS, a joint platform of developers Ikigai Energy and Agnoli Giuggioli, to deploy 2.3GW of BESS in Italy.

A panel of developers, operators, OEMs and consultants discussed the different government approaches in Europe to ensuring long-term deployment of energy storage with revenue and capex support schemes, at last month’s Energy Storage Summit EU 2025.