A large-scale system combining advanced batteries and ultracapacitor energy storage to provide utility grid services is up and running in North Carolina, according to one of the project’s partners.

Lockheed Martin has told Energy-Storage.News that while the company wants its energy storage systems to support the adoption of renewable energy, its recently launched lithium-ion devices will focus on “commercial applications”.

Energy storage developers have an opportunity to prove the benefits of storage systems compared to fossil fuel technologies in what will be one of the fastest energy storage procurements in history pending in California, according to industry commentators and analysts.

Another period of growth in US energy storage was enjoyed in the first quarter of 2016, up by 127% year-over-year compared to the equivalent period in 2015, GTM Research has found.

The California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) has issued a landmark resolution that requires a major utility to procure energy storage capacity as quickly as possible.

The rapid march of energy storage batteries into the energy system is one element of a wider market transformation that is “terrifying some players as much as it is thrilling others,” according to the new chair of the Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA) Martijn Wilder.

A bill introduced in Congress last week that could apply an energy investment credit for storage systems in the US, has been welcomed by the US Energy Storage Association (ESA).

Energy storage provider Schmid Energy Systems has signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with vanadium supplier VanadiumCorp Resource to jointly work on mineral extraction and developing vanadium electrolyte.

Anthony Price of consultancy Swanbarton previews the International Flow Battery Forum in Germany with a quick primer on the technology, its uses and some of the players attending the event.