Iowa’s energy regulator has approved two projects from NextEra Energy Resources including a 300MWh co-located battery energy storage system (BESS) while utility Alliant has turned on a 5MW unit in the state.

Blackstone portfolio company Aypa Power has closed an US$88 million construction and term loan facility for Wolf Tank, a 173MWh standalone energy storage project in Texas.

US energy storage system integration services and software company FlexGen has raised US$100 million in a Series C funding round.

News in brief, from another busy week for our colleagues reporting on the UK battery storage market at Solar Power Portal.

Renewable energy developer Kearsarge Energy expects a 20-50% revenue uplift for a solar-plus-storage project in the New England ISO market by using Customized Energy Solutions’ optimisation platform.

London-listed energy storage investor Gore Street Capital CEO Alex O’Cinneide discussed its fund’s recent expansion outside UK/Ireland and which markets are most of interest, in an interview with Energy-storage.news.

Battery energy storage is load shifting up to 6GWh a day on the California ISO (CAISO) grid, storage sector manager Gabe Murtaugh told Energy-storage.news, as the operator considers a market design change linked to batteries’ state of charge (SoC).

Fluence has netted a deal to onboard 1.1GW of solar and storage assets to its digital energy trading and bidding platform with AES Corporation, one of the energy storage technology provider’s parent companies. 

Investors are now becoming more comfortable with battery storage in the UK, with projects being profitable and cost-effective, according to industry experts.

GridBeyond is to optimise Greencoat Renewables’s first energy storage project. This 10.8MW front-of-the-meter battery is co-located with the Killala Community Wind Farm in Tawnaghmore Upper, Ireland and is expected to be online early next year.