Thermal energy storage can make steam for chemical industries and manufacturing economically viable, writes Martin Schichtel, CEO and Founder of Kraftblock.

It’s been a busy few weeks in the run-up to Christmas in Europe’s BESS project space, with M&A, final investment decisions (FID) and supplier deals in Germany, Belgium, Portugal, Italy, Finland, Romania and the UK totally around 800MW of capacity.

Calibrant’s BESS for a new data centre in Oregon, US, was hailed as the first of its kind, but what are the details beyond the headline? We caught up with Calibrant’s CCO to discuss the practical, commercial and technical specifics of the project.

Lithium-ion OEM Hithium has unveiled a new, even larger format 1,300Ah battery cell for 8-hour BESS applications, alongside new related BESS products.

A total of around 4.9GW/14GWh of grid-scale BESS entered commercial operations around the world last month, a 29% fall year-on-year owing to an unusually slow month in China.

The Ministry of the Environment in Poland has shortlisted projects for an energy storage capex support programme totalling 4.15 billion PLN (c.€1 billion), with 183 eligible to progress to the next round.

System integrator Guoxia Technology has obtained approval for its main board listing on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange.

A trio of large-scale BESS announcements by major power firms of 700-800MWh capacity each in Germany show the country’s energy storage market moving into the new era of scale.

Last month was the first time since June that both pre-application submissions and full planning consent submissions for grid-scale UK BESS surpassed 1GWh – just before NESO announced the results of its grid connection queue reshuffle.

A trio of Germany grid-scale BESS news items, with Next Kraftwerke and ju:niz Energy agreeing a seven year toll, Alpiq announcing a 370MW pipeline, and WBS Power selling the country’s largest solar-plus-storage project and planning a data centre on the same site.