The French overseas territory of New Caledonia has hailed the switch-on of a 16MWp solar farm, with battery energy storage to be later attached, and another standalone 5MWh battery project as significant steps towards ‘100% renewable energy’ targets.

A Singapore-headquartered start-up which recently completed microgrid projects including solar and battery energy storage, for luxury resorts in South East Asia, says it wants to take the tech and its concepts into a number of other sectors.

Australia’s national Clean Energy Finance Corporation (CEFC) has said it will commit AU$50 million (US$34.14 million) to help fund expansion of landmark Hornsdale battery project in South Australia.

Redflow’s zinc-bromine based devices have been picked by the New Zealand Rural Connectivity Group to help extend mobile coverage and internet connectivity to thousands of homes and businesses in remote areas.

In what is unlikely to become a regular feature of Energy-Storage.news, but seems apt nonetheless, this edition rounds up news from some of the latest behind-the-meter orchestras of small-scale resources in the past few weeks.

While recycling of lithium and other materials such as cobalt from batteries will greatly increase in the coming years, the potential availability of second life batteries should not be underestimated, according to new research and data.

Large-scale solar farm developer Maoneng Energy said it is expanding its battery energy storage portfolio in Australia, after signing a deal for 400MWh of projects with major utility company AGL.

A wind farm with co-located battery storage, in development by UK-headquartered multinational renewables developer and EPC provider RES Group, is to go ahead in Australia.

By the middle of the 2020s, using hybrid ‘portfolios’ of batteries and renewable energy sources will economically outperform existing gas power plants, while the combination of technologies is already cost-competitive with building new gas plants, a new report from the US-based Rocky Mountain Institute has said.

Singapore has targeted 200MW of energy storage beyond 2025 and 2GW of solar by 2030, but will continue to rely on natural gas for the next 50 years.