Private equity firm KKR’s investment vehicle ContourGlobal has acquired BESS projects in Italy totalling 1.6GW of power and up to 9.5GWh of capacity, with an eye on the MACSE auctions in September.

The International Finance Corporation (IFC) will loan IR4.6 billion (US$55 million) to infrastructure investor IndiGrid for a standalone battery storage project in Gujarat, India.

Gamuda has partnered with landowners for a 1.2GW renewable energy and energy storage portfolio in Tasmania, Australia, which includes up to 600MW of energy storage capacity.

In Texas, Vitis Energy announces financial close of the Apache Hill Energy Centre while Enertis Applus+ provides independent engineering services for Excelsior Energy Capital.

Idaho Power’s updated integrated resource plan adds more solar, wind and energy storage than gas generation, while Public Service Company of New Mexico gets 450MW of solar and storage added to its resource application.

Evolving market dynamics in ERCOT and CAISO, the two leading US electricity markets for battery storage, call for smart optimisation strategies, write Ali Karimian and Alden Phinney of GridBeyond.

PowerChina has begun construction on what is claimed to be the world’s largest generation-side electrochemical energy storage project.

FlexGen Power Systems (FlexGen) has bid to take over rival US system integrator Powin during the latter’s Chapter 11 bankruptcy proceedings.

OptiGrid has partnered with Hepburn Energy to optimise a BESS at the 4.1MW Hepburn Wind Project in Victoria, Australia, using AI.

Oregon’s Marion County has become the latest jurisdiction in the US to introduce a moratorium on utility-scale battery storage.