Last month was the first time since June that both pre-application submissions and full planning consent submissions for grid-scale UK BESS surpassed 1GWh – just before NESO announced the results of its grid connection queue reshuffle.

NHOA Energy has secured contracts from Engie for an 80MW/320MWh BESS at Engie’s Drogenbos power station, near Brussels, Belgium.

Cell manufacturing overcapacity and intense competition contributed to an 8% decline in the average cost of lithium-ion battery packs, according to BloombergNEF.

In this Energy-Storage.news roundup, Energy Vault enters the Swiss energy storage market, ZincFive raises Series F financing, and Convergent Energy and Power secures a multimillion-dollar facility provided by NY Green Bank.

The UK’s National Energy System Operator (NESO) will offer grid connection offers up to 2035 to 283GW of projects following a reform of the process.

European energy independence is achievable if long-duration energy storage is factored into the mix, writes Oonagh O’Grady of Hydrostor.

Project to integrate electric vehicle fast-chargers into ancillary services markets could be widely replicated, according to ADS-TEC Energy.

A trio of Germany grid-scale BESS news items, with Next Kraftwerke and ju:niz Energy agreeing a seven year toll, Alpiq announcing a 370MW pipeline, and WBS Power selling the country’s largest solar-plus-storage project and planning a data centre on the same site.

ABB has acquired the solar PV and wind inverter and battery storage power conversion system (PCS) businesses of Gamesa Electric.

Solar Media analyst Charlotte Gisbourne assesses the outlook for the major listed non-lithium battery energy storage technology companies.