While utility Hawaiian Electric (HECO) stands poised to announce the finalists of its recent massive procurement of solar-plus-storage and standalone energy storage projects, developers with winning bids seem determined to steal the utility’s thunder.

Would-be investors and interested stakeholders in a 50MW battery energy storage project in Colombia have been invited to respond with comments to the Energy Mining Planning Unit (UPME) of the government Ministry of Mines and Energy.

This week’s roundup of news in brief from around the world in energy storage focuses on recent products and services launches.

The number of sites pairing renewable energy with energy storage in the US more than doubled from 2016 to 2019 and the trend is expected to continue, according to the US Energy Information Administration (EIA).

From a full week of webinars and panel discussions, there was a huge amount of ground covered. Here are some more of our takeaways and links to some of the news and views we’ve already posted.

Utility PG&E has asked the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) for approval of five large-scale battery projects, each with four-hours duration, that will take the investor-owned utility (IOU) past 1,000MW of battery energy storage in its service area.

With the award of funding from the California Energy Commission, advanced energy hardware and software including solar-plus-storage, blockchain and EV charging stations will help demonstrate the feasibility of decarbonising a disadvantaged community in Los Angeles.

Why the real competition is fossil fuels, which battery optimisation strategies yield the best returns and bringing safety rules and guidelines to the attention of first-responders are among the topics discussed on the latest special episode of the Solar Media podcast.

Long duration energy storage is an “essential” technology to help accelerate renewable deployment, according to the US Department of Energy’s Dr Imre Gyuk, but will require “appropriate regulatory frameworks”.

With the ongoing changes in global trade dynamics, new players may be entering the market for exporting lithium battereis. Cory Levins at hazardous materials and dangerous goods shipping supplies specialist Air Sea Containers writes about some of the main concerns they should be aware of.