US electricity provider Direct Energy Business will be using some of the world’s largest battery energy storage systems to help cover its customers’ peak demand for power, signing contracts with project developer and investor LS Power.

US developer GlidePath Power Solutions has signed up to use a full life-cycle management platform for the batteries it uses, including recycling and repurposing as it seeks to “resolve the recycling and re-use case upfront, not down the track”.

The grid operator for the Canadian province of Alberta’s forthcoming technology pilot for fast frequency response services is a “step in the right direction” to enable energy storage deployment, but current regulatory conditions present barriers to maximising the value of batteries and other storage, Energy-Storage.news has heard.

A new report co-authored by energy expert Tony Seba predicts that the combination of solar and wind energy with batteries could undercut and disrupt the existing global energy system with “the cheapest power available” over the next decade.

Energy storage systems integration company LS Energy Solutions has appoined Steve Fludder, former head of NEC Corporation’s Energy Solutions division, as its new chief executive officer (CEO).

The acquisition of Advanced Microgrid Solutions (AMS) saw energy storage technology provider and system integrator Fluence take on AMS’ artificial intelligence (AI)-enabled optimised bidding software for energy storage and renewable energy assets. Energy-Storage.news editor Andy Colthorpe asked Fluence CTO Brett Galura and former AMS CEO Seyed H. Madaeni some key questions about the acquisition.

Tesla said that it more than doubled production volumes of grid-scale energy storage solution Megapack in the third quarter of 2020 as the company continues to ramp up production to “match unprecedented demand across the globe”.

Balancing the electricity supply system is not a simple task anywhere in the world, especially as more and more distributed energy resources come online. OpenADR can kick in, whenever the grid operator needs to reduce demand to keep the system stable. Aric Saunders of Electriq Power explains.

Indiana’s solar capacity is set to surge in the next three years as the state’s second-biggest utility unveils plans to develop three large-scale PV projects, two of which will include battery storage.

Venture capital (VC) funding in battery storage companies in the third quarter of 2020 was up 78% on the previous quarter, while total corporate funding in the sector for the first nine months of the year rose by 62% compared to the same period in 2019.