Stem Inc and Sunverge, best known for providing battery and solar-plus-storage solutions for businesses and homes respectively, are partnering with companies in the electric vehicle (EV) sector. 

This edition of news in brief from around the world in energy storage focuses on small-scale but potentially significant deployments. 

Batteries will be mounted on electricity poles across the low voltage distribution network and aggregated as a virtual power plant (VPP), in a project which will trial their ability to integrate more renewable energy in two regions of Victoria, Australia. 

Major Australian energy retailer AGL has contracted Finnish technology company Wärtsilä to supply a battery energy storage system (BESS) for a 250MW / 250MWh project at Torrens Island, South Australia.

Grant funding is being made available to help commercialise “emerging, innovative and transformative” renewable energy technologies and projects by the state government of Victoria, Australia.

Approval has been granted for a 150MWh battery storage retrofit at a Queensland solar farm under development by Elliott Green Power Australia (EGP), a solar investment fund group currently seeking to sell off its assets and exit the industry.

Solar and solar-plus-storage systems will be installed at two nickel mines in Western Australia for BHP, a supplier to Tesla, while a Rio Tinto ilmenite mine in Madagascar will be powered by a solar-wind-storage hybrid plant.

Update 2 August 2021 (2): The fire was declared under control at 3:05pm local time today, CFA said.

The city council of Melbourne, Australia, has committed AU$300,000 from its 2021 budget to fund a pilot scheme which could lead to the rollout of 5MW of community battery storage systems by 2024.

Australia’s federal government has committed millions of dollars in grants to companies involved in lithium battery and vanadium redox flow battery value chains, as part of a wider pledge to support resources and critical minerals sectors in the country.