Lithium-ion gigafactory company Northvolt’s energy storage system (ESS) assembly factory in Poland has won a share of €1.8 billion (US$1.8 billion) in EU grant funding, along with a battery recycling plant in north France.

The CEOs of Fluence, Gore Street, Gresham House and six others have penned an open letter calling on policy makers in Europe to set adequate targets and policy frameworks for the deployment of energy storage.

Construction has begun on a large-scale hybrid renewable energy project combining wind, solar PV and energy storage in Australia.

Mobile battery storage rental company Greener Power Solutions has raised €45 million (US$45 million) from DIF Capital Partners.

Global system integrator Fluence and utility Münch Energie are developing a solar-plus-storage plant with 34MWh of storage in Merseburg, Germany.

Grid operators in the Netherlands are trialling the potential of large battery storage to relieve bottlenecks in the grid.

The UK government has cemented the role of energy storage as a generation asset in last week’s landmark Energy Bill.

Microsoft will be the latest big tech player to use battery storage at data centres which will provide grid flexibility services.

Volkswagen has started construction of its 40GWh battery cell gigafactory in Salzgitter, Germany, and the company plans to dedicate capacity to grid-scale energy storage in future.

Iberdrola has commissioned a battery storage system in Ireland that will contribute to grid security as more renewables come online.