The US Trade and Development Agency (USTDA) is continuing its mission of funding priority development projects in emerging economies, this time by signing two grants that leverage US technology and investment to increase access to affordable, reliable electricity in Kenya.

Flow battery maker Primus Power was leader of the charts in VC funding in the first quarter of 2017, securing US$32 million from a range of investors, according to Mercom Capital’s latest report.

The Department of Energy (DoE) of the Philippines has progressed solar projects with a combined total of 162MW of capacity, along with a 30MW battery energy storage project to grid impact testing (GIS) stages, according to consulting firm Enerdata.

In the first of a two-part blog series on the energy storage response to the infamous Aliso Canyon gas leak in California, Energy-Storage.News sets the scene of how the California Energy Commission and chosen system suppliers got their heads around solving a mammoth power shortage with many, many batteries, in a race against time.

Multinational utility Engie will install a 1MW / 4MWh Eos Energy Storage zinc hybrid cathode battery system in Brazil and is expected to “exercise the system to its operational boundaries”.

In the spirit of harnessing clean energy and enhancing grid reliability, Californian utility San Diego Gas & Electric (SDG&E) has signed contracts for 83.5MW of energy storage.

Queensland-based developer SolarQ is planning to build a 350MW(ac) solar plant combined with a ground-breaking 4,000MWh of lithium-ion battery storage in the Gympie Region of Queensland, Australia.

Clearly, renewable energy is now a viable alternative to traditional generation from a cost perspective. However solar and wind’s penetration of the grid is constrained by ageing infrastructure, high grid connection costs and their intermittent, weather-dependent nature. Scott McGregor looks at how long-duration energy storage on an industrial scale can help.

Energy storage companies “have suffered significant and detrimental harm” from changes to rules governing the frequency regulation market in US regional transmission organisation (RTO) PJM Interconnection’s service area, the Energy Storage Association has said.

One of Australia’s energy market regulators has put out a lengthy document detailing the potential impact of introducing five minute settlement into the electricity spot market, which would likely favour flexible resources such as energy storage.