Stakeholders have two months to comment on guidelines for safely installing lithium-ion energy storage in Australian homes being drafted by Standards Australia, which have already proved controversial.

A consultancy contract for a 250MW pumped hydro energy storage plant in Dubai has been awarded to French power company EDF by the emirate’s main public infrastructure company.

The UK’s main electricity transmission network operator (TNO) National Grid has published a new consultation on its system needs and product strategy which paves the way for a number of new services tenders to be made available from next year.

Australia’s chief scientist Dr Alan Finkel has recommended that after 2020, wind and solar projects should be required to pair with energy storage capacity or dispatchable generation plants to enhance the security of the power system.

Giants of the UK energy sector are to work within a new collaborative group aimed at enabling significant cost reductions for the electricity system through the use of energy storage applications.

Energy storage firms have responded to the outcome of the general election with calls for stability, long term vision and an end to the “regulatory hurdles” that have limited the industry’s growth thus far in the UK.

India’s first grid-scale solar-plus-storage tender has been held up by the extreme drop in the country’s solar PV prices this year, according to Rahul Walawalkar, executive director of the Indian Energy Storage Alliance.

The Cook Islands in the Pacific will host a 5.6MWh lithium-ion battery energy storage system for the integration of renewables, in a project funded by the Asian Development Bank, European Union and Global Environmental Fund.

Energy storage in the US has just enjoyed its greatest quarter for megawatt-hours deployed, up almost 1000% from the equivalent period last year, installing 233.7MWh.

The US state of California’s Senate has approved a bill that would provide rebates to customers for the purchase of energy storage systems, bringing the legislation a step closer to introduction.