The government of Estonia has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) for what would be the Eastern European country’s first pumped hydro energy storage (PHES) facility.

The government of Alberta, Canada, has selected advanced and clean energy projects to receive CA$33.7 million (US$24.83 million) in grant funding, including a hydroelectric-plus-supercapacitor technology pilot.

The US government has announced US$4 billion in tax credits for over 100 projects under the Qualifying Advanced Energy Project Tax Credit (48C) scheme.

The European Commission has approved a €1 billion (US$1.1 billion) state aid measure for Greece to support two solar-plus-storage projects.

The BESS ‘land grab’ looks set to continue as Tier 2 companies vie for market share before countries potentially curb imports from China, with one developer suggesting the recent CATL-Duke Energy case will “not be unique”.

Belgium’s energy minister visited the site of a large-scale lithium-ion (Li-ion) battery storage project, a few days after attending the inauguration of a vanadium flow battery system.   

A regional council in Germany has given the go-ahead for transmission system operator (TSO) TransnetBW’s 250MW Grid Booster BESS project, which will be provided by system integrator Fluence.

California Public Utilities Commission has approved requests to allow solar and storage facilities to use Limited Generation Profiles (LGPs).

Big investments are being made into the battery recycling sector in Europe as the continent looks to increase the domestic supply of critical materials for its lithium-ion gigafactory projects.

Europe’s big battery storage year leads this shorter than usual Friday Briefing, with Solar Media’s offices closed for a short break.