News in brief from around the world of energy storage.

A prolific trio of major companies in natural gas, energy storage and renewable energy project development have united to take on Asia’s energy storage market, with Japan’s JERA, Australia’s Lyon Group and US-headquartered multinational Fluence announcing a partnership this morning.

A ‘green energy hub’ including a huge 120MW wind farm and up to 100MW of battery energy storage in Queensland, Australia, by French developer Neoen has received planning approvals from local government.

Kokam has deployed high power battery storage at an off-grid site in Australia, which the company claims increases efficiency of onsite gas turbines at lower cost than rival grid-scale lithium projects.

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.

Virtual power plants (VPPs) can greatly increase the value of home energy storage systems for a range of stakeholders including grid operators, utilities and their customers, according to SolarEdge, which has just launched a VPP software platform.

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.

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.

Australia’s National Energy Guarantee (NEG), which has been waived through for a final decision in August, would significantly harm the country’s large-scale renewables pipeline, with just 1.5GW expected to be completed by 2025 despite the current 16GW pipeline, according to the head of the country’s solar and storage council.