A plan to turn Australian island state Tasmania into the ‘Battery of the Nation’ has taken a step forwards.

Microinverter supplier Enphase Energy has been selected by Vermont, US, utility Green Mountain Power to supply its home battery system for a virtual power plant (VPP) programme.

The Biden administration plans to use the Cold War-era Defense Production Act to ramp up mining and processing for materials integral to batteries and renewable energy, like lithium, graphite, nickel, manganese and cobalt.

Fluence has won another contract to use its bidding platform to maximise market participation for renewable energy facilities in Australia.

EDF Renewables subsidiary Powerflex has partnered with Ontario utility Hydro One to develop distributed energy resource solutions in the Canadian province.

Utility Hawaiian Electric has launched a 10-year programme of credits and incentives to its Battery Bonus scheme, which launched last year as a one-time cash incentive for adding battery storage to residential PV systems.

Getting grid interconnection rights for energy storage in the US is difficult.

The World Bank’s International Finance Corporation is taking part in a study to assess how technologies like solar-plus-storage hybrids can provide baseload power in the Philippines.

Southern Power has turned two four-hour battery energy storage systems (BESS) totalling 640MWh at two of its solar facilities in California online.

Enel X will participate in a pilot in Ontario aggregating behind-the-meter battery storage and demand response.