A serious incident at an energy storage project that hospitalised four firefighters in Arizona is currently under investigation, with “investigative outcomes” from the utility in question, APS, set to inform the industry’s path forwards.

A fire at a large-scale battery energy storage project late last week left four firefighters injured in Arizona, with two reported to be seriously injured, in an incident now under investigation.

Vertically-integrated solar energy company First Solar will be involved in the first megawatt-scale battery system announced in Arizona since it was revealed the state could put a 3,000MW energy storage deployment target in place.

Sunverge Energy has signed off on deals with three electric utilities in Arizona, Florida and Vermont that will expand the company’s customer base for its storage system and Virtual Power Plant (VPP) platform.

In its home territory of Germany, energy storage provider Sonnen is making a play to replace utilities, but its business models in the US will instead emphasise cooperation with existing energy suppliers.

Arizona Public Service (APS) announced Wednesday that rather than rebuild miles of electricity transmission lines, it will install two battery storage systems totalling 8MWh in rural Punkin Center, Arizona — making it one of the first electricity companies in the US to utilise batteries instead of traditional infrastructure.