With the recognition that “battery technology holds the key” to a future of cleaner transport and flexible, resilient electricity grids, four key US government departments have jointly established a Federal Consortium for Advanced Batteries (FCAB).

Clean Power Alliance, one of California’s community choice aggregator (CCA) groups has signed a 15-year power purchase agreement (PPA) with developer 8minute Solar Energy for the output of a massive solar-plus-storage plant.

Some news in brief from around the world in energy storage.

Invinity Energy Systems, supplier of a grid-scale vanadium flow battery being installed at a site in the UK will rent the battery’s electrolyte out to the investor developing the project, thereby helping lower the upfront cost of getting the system deployed.

Microgrid projects on three different continents that include multiple megawatts of battery storage alongside renewable energy have been announced in the past few days from well-known industry players.

Mitsubishi Power has launched a simplified approach to commercially integrating hydrogen into energy systems either as long or short duration energy storage, or as a means of balancing the grid as higher shares of renewable energy are added.

The US industry deployed 168MW / 288MWh of energy storage in the second quarter of this year, the second highest quarterly figures on record, according to Wood Mackenzie Power & Renewables.

Guidelines for lithium-ion battery storage system decommissioning and recycling have been launched in the US by the national Energy Storage Association, while associations in European Union territories as well as the US have come together to launch an online information portal on the safe transportation.

US wholesale electricity supplier NextEra Energy Resources has said 700MW of contracted battery energy storage resources it will deploy in California within two years could be followed by a further 2,000MW pipeline of battery projects under development in the state.

More than 60MWh of residential battery energy storage systems from sonnen will be used in a virtual power plant (VPP) project in California that will fit out solar-powered energy solutions for around 3,000 residential apartments.