In mid-July, the 100MW / 100MWh Minety battery energy storage system (BESS) was completed in Wiltshire, southern England. Something of a landmark project for the UK and Europe’s battery storage industries, here’s what’s happened so far, as reported by our sister sites Current± and Solar Power Portal.

Approval has been granted for a 150MWh battery storage retrofit at a Queensland solar farm under development by Elliott Green Power Australia (EGP), a solar investment fund group currently seeking to sell off its assets and exit the industry.

Governor Doug Ducey of Arizona expressed delight yesterday as lithium-ion battery and stationary storage system manufacturer KORE Power selected his state for the location of a new gigafactory.

Vertically integrated solar PV company SunPower and residential battery storage provider sonnen have each started up programmes to deploy solar-plus-storage for communities in California and New York respectively.

Two Chinese energy storage companies have been awarded top-class certifications for safety and technical requirements from TÜV Rheinland, with award ceremonies held earlier this month.

Cost, complexity and carbon footprint. Earlier this month, Switzerland-headquartered Leclanché launched its new, modular energy storage system solution aimed at reducing all three of these challenging points for the industry. VP for system engineering Daniel Fohr and EMEA region sales and business development manager Cyril Carpentier speak about how and why Leclanché believe LeBlock solves some of the major concerns energy storage developers face.

Aimed at reducing the cost, complexity and environmental footprint of stationary energy storage system (ESS) installations, Leclanché has launched a modular battery storage solution based on easily transportable, plug and play racks that can be put together onsite.

The energy storage industry should be well prepared to deal with failure in lithium-ion battery systems so that thermal runaway in a single battery cell never becomes a fire or explosion.

Vertically-integrated solar PV company Canadian Solar won nearly 1GWh of battery storage contracts in 2020 and CEO Shawn Qu has said it expects to “capture around 10% of the battery storage market in the US alone” during this year.

Stem Inc has revealed its financial results for 2020 ahead of listing on the New York Stock Exchange, admitting that despite expecting a fourfold increase in revenues this year, the company is unlikely to achieve profitability until at least the end of next year.