Utility Xcel Energy has received a US$20 million grant commitment from VC firm Breakthrough Energy for projects using Form Energy’s iron-air battery, while a sodium ion battery firm has secured bridge financing.
A ‘first of its kind’ microgrid will be installed at a California substation, where it will use a combination of lithium-ion batteries and green hydrogen to provide 48 hours of back up.
The UK Department for Energy Security and Net Zero (DESNZ) is providing £30 million (US$37.5 million) in grants for long-duration energy storage (LDES) projects from Synchrostor, Invinity Energy Systems and Cheesecake Energy.
NextEra’s eight-hour energy storage project in California will use lithium-ion technology, but ‘battery chemistry did not play a major role in project evaluation’, offtaker Clean Power Alliance told Energy-Storage.news.