Microsoft, Google and 10 other companies have joined the Long Duration Energy Storage (LDES) Council, a CEO-led organisation launched at COP26 in November to push for the global deployment of technologies that can store and discharge energy for eight hours or longer.

US$380 million in support for long-duration energy storage projects in California has been included in the state’s budget for 2022-2023. 

We hear from two US companies which are stakeholders in both the present and future of energy storage, in this fourth and final instalment of our interview series looking back at 2021 and ahead to this year and beyond.

News in brief from around the world in energy storage, this time focusing on long-duration.

A “novel and innovative” technology which uses CO2 as a medium to store energy could be made using off-the-shelf equipment and made available to the market as early as next year, the company behind it has said. 

Four new grid-scale battery energy storage projects have been announced by California energy supplier Central Coast Community Energy (CCCE), including three long-duration flow battery projects. 

Long-duration energy storage has a crucial role to play in decarbonising the global energy system sufficiently to avoid catastrophic climate change as long as its value can be unlocked. 

News in brief from around the world in energy storage.

ESS Inc’s recent special purpose acquisition company (SPAC) merger, which listed the iron flow battery manufacturer’s shares and warrants on the New York Stock Exchange, has raised US$246 million cash.