After China connected a huge battery to a project combining solar, wind and other generation sources, a US utility project has just been announced which will likewise combine solar and wind with a grid-scale battery.

Known historically for its oil and in the present day for deploying large amounts of wind energy and latterly for deploying batteries at wind farms, the US state of Texas is less well known for solar-plus-storage projects.

Utility NV Energy has awarded contracts in the US state of Nevada for over 1,000MW of renewable energy projects – including a 420MW-dc solar farm – and has also requested approval for 100MW of energy storage.

California has proved energy storage is both effective and cost-effective as a capacity resource, leading to one utility being instructed to hold competitive solicitations for energy storage, the head of the California Energy Storage Alliance (CESA) has said.

California investor-owned utility (IO) Pacific Gas & Electric (PG&E) has furthered its commitment towards the state’s mandated target for energy storage deployment by utilities, putting 165MW of contracts forward to regulator California Public Utilities’ Commission (CPUC) for approval.