The Asian Development Bank (ADB) has signed a loan deal for its first wind energy-plus-battery storage project in Thailand, which is also the country’s first private sector initiative to combine the two technologies at scale.

European Commission greenlights €3.2bn research plan by seven major states to turn continent into global battery hub even as it signals it is ready to block imports on environmental grounds.

The pilot project, which comprises two 1MW components, has been billed by its backers as the country’s first grid-scale distributed battery system.

Schmid and Saudi companies are also planning a gigawatt-scale manufacturing facility for Vanadium Redox Flow Batteries.

Japanese conglomerate Marubeni Corporation has invested in US-based company, GridMarket, which is focused on distributed generation projects using battery storage, solar PV, fuel cells, and combined heat and power.

Demand for more reliable electricity from a district of the Republic of Bashkortostan will soon be answered by the largest hybrid solar and energy storage project in the region to date.

Constant Energy signs MoU with Siam Cement Group (SCG Cement), to deploy 50MW of C&I solar PV plants, with the company chief planning for an energy storage component on many of the projects.

French energy giant teams up with Myanmar-focused off-grid energy specialist, Mandalay Yoma, to help spur rural electrification across the Southeast Asian country with mini-grids combining PV, diesel and battery storage.

We hope you’ve enjoyed our series looking back on last year’s challenges, milestone and successes and looking ahead to a busy 2019. After featuring a range of views from industry participants and experts, now it’s my turn to throw out some predictions for the year ahead…