Key contracts have been signed for the first-ever grid-scale battery storage project in Namibia, signifying the African country’s dedication to modernising its energy infrastructure, according to a top local official.

At COP28 last week, 11 countries joined a global consortium aimed at securing 5GW of battery energy storage deployments in low or middle-income countries.

Kenya Electricity Generating Company (KenGen) has been selected to carry out a battery storage pilot project, through a programme to increase electricity access funded by the World Bank.

Maldives is seeking input on flow battery-based energy storage systems for two of the country’s 1,192 islands.

Eskom, the public utility company of South Africa, has inaugurated a 20MW/100MWh battery energy storage system (BESS) aimed at mitigating the challenging situation facing the country’s grid.

Finance institutions GMO and PIDG will finance a first battery storage project in Senegal dedicated to frequency regulation, the first in the region, project developer Africa REN claimed.

Pacific island country of Palau has welcomed the commissioning of its first large-scale solar-plus-storage project, representing the largest power plant of its kind in the Western Pacific region.

The government of Bangladesh and potential investors into energy storage in the South Asian country were handed a European Union-funded roadmap for the technology’s development last week.

Development banks IFC and AfDB have financed co-located projects in Malawi and Eritrea which collectively total 25MW of energy storage.

Vietnam’s energy storage sector a priority for Asian Development Bank and Global Energy Alliance for People and Planet funds.