Arizona Public Service (APS) announced Wednesday that rather than rebuild miles of electricity transmission lines, it will install two battery storage systems totalling 8MWh in rural Punkin Center, Arizona — making it one of the first electricity companies in the US to utilise batteries instead of traditional infrastructure.

Nidec ASI will be installing 5MW / 5MWh of battery energy storage at a utility-scale wind farm on the French island territory of Martinique, aimed at stabilising and maximising the flow of energy onto the grid.

Founder and CEO Paul Nahi last night announced his resignation from Enphase, the PV microinverter maker and energy management specialist, which also makes its own AC Battery for energy storage.

The sale of an NEC Corporation business division involved in manufacturing lithium-ion batteries will have no material impact on the group’s activities in energy storage, according to a company spokesman.

There is a global trend towards longer duration energy storage and even in this segment, lithium-ion batteries are expected to dominate the market over flow batteries and other technologies, an I.H.S Markit analyst has told Energy-Storage.News.

Powin Energy will provide 2.4MWh of energy storage systems across seven sites in Hawaii.

Primus Power, a flow battery maker which claims its systems can cost less than half the price of lithium-ion energy storage over its lifetime, is establishing manufacturing lines in China.

Developer Deepwater Wind has applied to build a 144MW offshore wind farm, coupled with 40MWh of battery-based energy storage from Tesla, off the coast of Massachusetts.

Tesla’s senior director of battery technology since 2006 has quit the company seeking pastures new, a company spokeswoman confirmed this morning.

Ideal Power, the US company best known for its power conversion systems for energy storage, has announced two recent project orders totalling 1.6MW in northern Texas and in California.