Queensland Investment Corporation (QIC) and EDP Renewables Australia have signed an exclusivity agreement to develop the Punchs Creek Renewable Energy Project, a 1,600MWh solar-plus-storage project in Queensland’s Toowoomba region.

Australia’s Waratah Super Battery has been hit with a “catastrophic” failure at one of its transformers, reducing the project’s capacity.

A roundup of battery energy storage system (BESS) stories from the US including Fullmark Energy’s 130MWh BESS reaching commercial operations, Habitat optimising a 500MWh BESS for Ørsted, and Quino Energy securing US$10 million in Series A funding.

HDRE and Zen Energy have executed a 20-year power purchase agreement for the 111MW/330MWh Templers Battery Project in South Australia.

Developer-operator Plus Power has secured US$160 million in tax equity investments from Morgan Stanley for two battery energy storage system (BESS) projects in Massachusetts and Maine, US.

Developer-operator GridStor’s 220MW/440MWh Hidden Lakes Reliability battery energy storage system (BESS) project in Texas, US, is now operational.

IPPs BrightNight and Cordelio Power have reached financial close on the 300MWac solar PV, 300MW/1,200MWh battery energy storage system (BESS) Pioneer Clean Energy Centre in Yuma, Arizona, US.

Origin Energy has secured unconditional connection agreements with AEMO for its 300MW/650MWh grid-forming BESS at Mortlake Power Station in Victoria.

US utility Xcel Energy plans to build the Midwest’s largest battery energy system (BESS) facility at the Sherco Energy Hub in central Minnesota, US.

LG Energy Solution and Stellantis’ joint venture (JV), NextStar Energy, Canada’s first large-scale lithium-ion (Li-ion) battery manufacturing plant, is expanding to produce energy storage system (ESS) batteries.