Hawaii’s position as one of the leading US states for energy storage deployment shows no sign of weakening as Hawaiian Electric Co last week announced 120MW of new battery storage across two projects in Oahu.

Solar Media, the publisher of sites including Energy-Storage.News and PV Tech, has just launched the latest edition of the annual Global Energy Storage Opportunity report for this year – available now as a free download.

Convergent Energy + Power, a US-Canadian project developer which has attracted investment from the venture capital arm of Statoil, has acquired 40MW of flywheel energy storage already in operation in grid-balancing markets in New York State and Pennsylvania.

The US government Department of Energy is funding research into storing energy for periods of between 10 and 100 hours, announcing last week that “up to US$30 million” will be available through the Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E).

The Thailand subsidiary of Delta Electronics, which makes equipment including solar inverters, has confirmed that it is investigating energy storage systems as part of a clean energy drive, following reports in local press.

G2 Energy, one of a small number of companies in the UK authorised to make new grid connections to the country’s electricity transmission and distribution networks, claims it has now surpassed the 100MW mark of battery projects worked on, as it announced the completion of connection works at a new 29MW battery storage facility in Kent, southern England.

There will be no benefit to basing home energy storage systems on automotive batteries, in the medium or long term, a representative of Mercedes-Benz Energy has said.

1414 Degrees, an Australian startup manufacturing thermal energy storage systems using a proprietary silicon storage medium is preparing to launch an Initial Public Offering (IPO) and build a 200MWh ‘module’ at a renewable energy facility.

Intersolar Managing Director Dr. Florian Wessendorf and NAATBatt International Executive Director James Greenberger have collaborated to forecast top trends that are expected to dominate the ees North America show floor this year.

Battery storage is a “necessity” for Hawaii to reach its 100% renewable energy by 2045 target, leading to electric cooperative KIUC becoming the top-ranked US utility for watts of energy storage deployed per customer in 2017.