Over a gigawatt of bids from battery storage project developers have been successful in the first-ever competitive auctions for low-carbon energy capacity held in Japan.

G7 nations have agreed a new global energy storage target of 1500GW by 2030, a six-fold increase from today’s levels.

Battery storage developer Eku Energy has partnered with utility Tokyo Gas on a grid-scale energy storage project in Japan, with construction expected to start soon.

Energy-Storage.news Premium speaks with Michael Phelan, CEO of energy management solutions provider GridBeyond, following €52 million Series C funding round.

The spinout and change in ownership of Mitsubishi Power Americas’ energy storage activities into standalone unit Prevalon will make it as ‘nimble and fast-moving as possible’, its CEO said, while not ‘chasing market share for the sake of market share’.

Gotion High Tech has continued its push into Japan’s battery storage market, forming a partnership with investor Daiwa and renewable energy engineering and O&M firm CO2OS.

Marubeni Corporation will build and own a large-scale battery energy storage system (BESS) on Japan’s northern island of Hokkaido.   

Energy storage projects will be eligible to take part in competitive capacity auctions for low-carbon power set to be launched this month by the Japanese government.  

Developer Gurin Energy is so convinced of Japan’s energy storage market potential that it is planning a single project equivalent to the country’s entire installed base of lithium-ion battery storage.

Singapore-headquartered Gurin Energy has revealed plans for a 500MW, 4-hour duration (2,000MWh) battery storage project in Japan.