An EV and stationary energy storage battery start-up headed by former SpaceX, Tesla, Apple, Amazon and Samsung designers and engineers has mobilised almost US$100 million of financing and contracts to kickstart manufacturing operations.

The US Department of Energy’s (DOE) assessment of reliability and security of the country’s electrical grid network is “encouraging”, the Energy Storage Association’s head has said in her initial reaction to the report’s publication.

PV energy provider SunPower announced Wednesday that it has broken ground on a 10MW PV project at the Redstone Arsenal US Army post in Alabama that will also feature a 1MW energy storage system.

The growing commercial viability of energy storage has led regulators in the US state of New Mexico to add the technology to the suite of resources available to utilities in their forward-planning.

Utility company Ameren and smart grid company S&C Electric Company announced that they have conducted a successful 24-hour islanding test in August at the recently deployed Ameren microgrid in Champaign, Illinois.

Alevo, a US energy storage provider which only started shipping its containerised solutions in January, has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.

California’s grid operations will be supported by the ramping of an estimated 3,000MW of energy storage, when a solar eclipse expected across the Pacific North-West of the US will cause PV generation to dip.

Energy storage services provider Peak Power will supply control platforms to 6MWh of energy storage projects in Ontario and New York, some of which will be funded by Sustainable Development Technology Canada (SDTC).

The CEO of a company that makes ‘microstorage’ units that connect directly to individual solar PV panels, says his products come with 20-year warranties with the intention of matching PV system owners’ expectations of product quality and lifetime.