While market opportunities for energy storage in Texas are considered to be limited, the largest battery project in the state so far, a 42MWh system, has just come online.

Contruction of a Tesla powerpack battery at the 60MW Gannawarra solar farm in Victoria, Australia – said the be the first battery storage system that has been retrofitted to an existing solar farm in the country – has been completed ahead of schedule.

The first ever wind and solar hybrid project in India, completed in April 2018, is to be retrofitted with energy storage after strong winds this year led to a curtailment of solar production.

Vistra Energy has contracted energy storage integrator FlexGen to install a 10MW / 42MWh energy storage system (ESS) at the 180MW Upton 2 Solar Power Plant in Texas.

Tesla and Fluence are to supply the south-east Australian state of Victoria’s first two large-scale, grid-connected energy storage batteries, one of which will be connected to an existing solar farm.

Younicos will carry out another project to retrofit lithium-ion batteries in replacement for an existing lead acid battery system at a wind farm, this time in Hawaii.

Battery storage technology costs will have to fall by a further 30% before projects in the UK are feasible without lucrative frequency response revenues, a leading investor has said.

UK-based renewables developer Anesco says the inclusion of battery storage has been central to the economic viability of the country’s first subsidy-free solar farm, a 10MW site the company has just unveiled in the east of England.

UK gas and electricity market regulator Ofgem has made a “game changer” decision for UK energy storage, by confirming that solar farms are able to retain accreditation under the government Renewables Obligation (RO) when supplying electricity to batteries.

Developer Anesco has continued to rack up utility-scale storage work after agreeing to retrofit 10 of Ancala Partner’s PV arrays in the UK with battery units.