UPDATE: Major Indian solar EPC firm Mahindra Susten has put in the lowest bid for a solar and energy storage auction in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands for the second time, having seen its victory in the original auction torn away by authorities as they reportedly explored other sources of power generation.

Eelpower, a UK-based developer which has executed renewables and cleantech projects including hydroelectric-plus-storage, has secured a £20 million (US$28.5 million) investment from investment trust Gravis Capital Management to build out its pipeline of permitted energy storage sites and pursue new development opportunities.

Bulgana Green Energy Hub, a renewable energy project powering commercial crop farms in Victoria, Australia, including large-scale wind and battery energy storage, will be designed and constructed by Siemens Gamesa.

In short, energy storage technology is set to revolutionise our society, EVs and beyond, with power companies among the most affected – whether they like it or not. The sector needs to wake up to this and decide what it is going to do about it. Education could provide the wake-up call that power professionals need, says Bo Normark of InnoEnergy.

The US is expected to remain the world’s biggest market for energy storage until 2022, with China its closest rival, GTM Research has said.

PV inverter manufacturer Sungrow and energy storage system integrator / software specialist Greensmith are working on the first community solar-plus-storage project to be delivered in the US state of Massachusetts.

Oil and gas giant British Petroleum has partnered with Tesla to install a storage battery at one of its subsidiaries’ wind farms in South Dakota, US, as part of a pilot program which could see the firm further embrace battery storage.

Lebanon could reconfigure its laws and regulations to allow private sector actors to generate renewable energy for sale to the grid, it emerged as the Middle Eastern country opened up its first solar-plus-storage tender process.

British vertically-integrated utility Scottish Power has come under scrutiny from the demand side response (DSR) sector after proposing to national regulator Ofgem that de-rating factors applied to large scale battery storage should be extended to those used to provide DSR in the Capacity Market.

In much the same way that the industrial revolution changed society all those years ago, electrification is now the driving force behind the industrialisation of multiple sectors. Energy storage has an obvious role, but Olivier Chabilan of Skeleton Technologies looks at something you might not have considered – ultracapacitors.