The cooling of commercial and industrial (C&I) buildings accounts for a significant percentage of energy use and greenhouse gas emissions (GHGs), but can instead be turned into “powerful energy assets.”

Stem Inc said that its portfolio of aggregated battery energy storage systems was called into action to help balance electricity networks across four different states and provinces in the US and Canada during heat waves in June.

After local opposition to the construction of a new gas peaker plant in Oxnard, California, a battery storage plant that was chosen instead has gone online just nine months after construction began.

California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) has approved a 11.5GW procurement of electricity capacity from greenhouse gas-free sources, while also approving a resolution that campaigners said will have severe negative impacts on the state’s residential solar and solar-plus-storage growth.

Eagle Mountain is a large-scale pumped hydro energy storage project under development in California. It’s a win-win project, argues Jeff Harvey, a consultant with over 35 years experience in California and senior environmental scientist for developer NextEra Energy Resources.

Recurrent Energy, the project development subsidiary of vertically-integrated solar PV company Canadian Solar, has claimed that it has 2.3GWh of battery storage projects in “late-stage development”.

Update 23 June 2021: LG Energy Solution has said that it was the supplier of battery storage rack equipment to Vistra Energy’s recently commissioned record-breaking project in Monterey County, California.

California’s second-largest investor-owned utility Pacific Gas & Electric has warned customers of a challenging summer ahead, beginning with a record-breaking heatwave expected in some parts of the state this week.

Southern California Edison (SCE), one of California’s three main investor-owned utilities, procured 1,360MW of battery energy storage during last year, according to an annual sustainability report for 2020 just published by parent company Edison International.

Commissioned at the start of this year, the Alamitos Battery Energy Storage System in California is a landmark project for the industry in having competed against natural gas to provide peaking capacity for the grid. Andy Colthorpe finds out the project’s backstory.