A local authority in the UK has approved planning permission for the construction of a 20MW energy storage system which will provide real-time grid stabilisation to the local distribution network.

Powin Energy will supply a 30kW/40kWh battery system for the University of Washington’s Clean Energy Institute.

Centrica, multinational major utility and owner of British Gas, is to launch a £19 million (US$24.2 million) UK pilot project which will assess the development of a virtual energy marketplace with renewables and storage at its heart in the UK.

Zinc-air battery-based energy storage system maker Fluidic Energy has received US$20 million in investment for projects in south-east Asia from a private equity fund which includes the Asian Development Bank as a partner.

German automobile giant BMW is to launch a new ‘Digital Charging Service’ (DCS) for its portfolio of electric vehicles early next year, promising to integrate EVs with national grids and on-site renewable generators.

Low carbon transport body Cenex has launched a technology demonstration trial of vehicle-to-grid (V2G) systems in three major European cities.

The soon-to-be-merged Tesla and SolarCity have completed a solar-plus-storage microgrid on an island in American Samoa that will reduce the local population’s reliance on costly and cumbersome diesel imports.

German manufacturer Tesvolt will supply 3MWh of energy storage to 25 villages in Mali, Africa, which the company claims will allow the currently diesel-reliant residents to drastically reduce electricity costs.

Vertically integrated energy storage solution company Leclanché and global battery manufacturer Narada Power have agreed to a strategic partnership for the manufacturing and development of lithium-ion battery technology for the Chinese and global markets.

Major utility Steag and Nidec ASI, formerly known as Ansaldo Sistemi Industriali, have inaugurated a 90MW energy storage system in Germany, in what is the largest installation of its kind.