Real estate developer ERNE Gruppe and architecture firm FlexBase are hoping to start construction on a data centre project in Switzerland next year, which will include a ‘non-flammable and non-explosive’ 500MW energy storage unit.

Battery energy storage system (BESS) solutions provider GE Vernova has been selected to deliver the BESS for Quinbrook Infrastructure Partners’ 250MW/1,000 MWh energy storage project in Queensland, Australia.

Peak Energy, a startup claiming to be the ‘first American venture to advance globally proven sodium-ion battery systems,’ has raised US$55 million in a Series A funding round.

The market for deploying energy storage at data centres saw announcements this week from Digital Realty and Enel X in Ireland and Exowatt in the US.

German telecommunications firm Deutsche Telekom has place its second battery storage order this year, for 60MWh of systems from Intilion.

Vanadium flow battery company Invinity Energy Systems has sold a 1.3MWh system to Kinetic Solution for a microgrid project serving a data centre in Arizona.

Fluence has reaffirmed its guidance of US$1.1 billion to US$1.3 billion revenues for the 2022 financial year, with the company’s CEO claiming expectations were exceeded in the first quarter “despite short-term headwinds”.

Facebook has been asked to renegotiate the terms of contracts with a New Mexico utility, signed for solar energy and energy storage facilities which will power a data centre in the state.

Google will procure energy from a US$600 million portfolio of renewables and energy storage assets specially-designed to enable the search engine company’s data centres in Virginia to run on 90% carbon-free electricity.

Barriers to financing for energy storage could hold back the growth of solar in the US, while an Investment Tax Credit (ITC) for standalone energy storage should be introduced, the audience heard as our publisher Solar Media hosted the Solar and Storage Finance USA event last week.