Abu Dhabi-based energy firm Masdar and state-run utility Costa Rican Electricity Institute (ICE) have signed an MoU to share technical knowledge and project experience for renewable energy development.

Masdar, the Abu Dhabi Future Energy Company, has signed a memorandum of understanding with the Korea Energy Agency (KEA) for renewable energy collaboration and investment between South Korea and the UAE.

The real-world performance of batteries paired with “Hywind” – the world’s first floating wind farm – will be analysed by the wind project’s owners, Masdar and Statoil.

Norwegian oil and gas company Statoil’s Batwind project in Scotland, combining wind turbines with energy storage, will have a battery system installed by system integrator Younicos.

Interest in energy storage in the Middle East is ‘ramping up significantly’, as we reported last week in an extract from this interview with IHS Markit analyst Julian Jansen. His firm is forecasting 1.8GW of energy storage for the region by 2025 – from an installed base of next-to-nothing today. Jansen talked us through some of the drivers, market dynamics and the general picture of what we might see developing.

Roundup: A third of US PV installers offer storage and 26% more could join them this year, China’s BYD signs up with UAE’s Masdar, Sunvault and Aboriginal Power’s ‘self-sustaining’ community project.

A research project conducted in partnership between Abu Dhabi’s Masdar Institute of Science and Technology (MIST), an independent university focused on sustainable technology, and Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) will develop an energy storage system using Vanadium Redox Flow Batteries (VRFBs).