The European Commission has approved a €699 million (US$760 million) state aid scheme in Spain to support the deployment of up to 3.5GW of energy storage.
Finnish telecoms firm Elisa will manage the charging activity of a 100MWh ‘Sand Battery’ project, optimising its activity in the country’s electricity reserve market.
Technology firm Hyme Energy and potential customer Arla Foods are seeking EU funding for a 200MW thermal energy storage system project, which they claim is the largest in the world.
The US Department of Energy (DOE) announced a conditional commitment to IceBrick Energy, for a loan of up to US$305.54 million to finance Project IceBrick, 9 December.
Construction is underway on a 100MWh thermal energy storage project in Finland, using the same ‘Sand Battery’ technology as a 8MWh system which came online in 2022.
A 100MW thermal solar and molten salt energy storage system in Xinjiang, China, is set to be completed and grid-connected by the end of the year, part of a project which has deployed conventional solar PV.
A new research centre ‘uniquely equipped’ to evaluate energy storage technologies has opened at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) in Washington, US.
Some long-duration energy storage (LDES) technologies are already cost-competitive with lithium-ion (Li-ion) but will struggle to match the incumbent’s cost reduction potential.
