News in brief from around the world of energy storage.

SunEdison founder and solar financing pioneer Jigar Shah talked to Andy Colthorpe about having the ‘freedom to invest’ for the biggest impact and why, with traditional lenders still reluctant to finance energy storage, there will always be space for frontrunners who are able to properly understand the value propositions of new and innovative sustainable technologies.

ENGIE company Green Charge has been chosen to install 2 MWh of energy storage at iFLY Indoor Skydiving’s San Diego and Ontario facilities in southern California.

Swiss institutional investment group SUSI Partners has agreed to finance C$120 million (US$94.56 million) of commercial and industrial (C&I) sector energy storage projects by Canadian project developer/owner NRStor.

US systems integrator IHI Energy Storage will build a 500kW / 2.5MWh energy storage system in Japan’s Fukushima region, for completion by April 2018.

Swiss battery maker Leclanché could apply for listing on a US stock exchange and is targeting the acquisition of an “energy management storage software company”, despite emerging from a recent period of “technical insolvency”.

Leading energy storage provider Powin Energy will be building and installing six energy storage projects at two sites in Ontario, Canada with a total capacity of 12.8MW/52.8MWh.

Leclanché has hailed recent project wins and a potential 450MW pipeline in reporting an improvement on its finances, which the company’s CFO has called “the first stage of our journey towards EBITDA breakeven”.

A Swiss fund aimed at encouraging institutional investors to get on board with energy storage has reached its first closing at €66 million (US$70.4 million).