Saudi Arabia’s government entity tasked with procuring electricity generation projects has commenced the qualification process for a 2GW/8GWh battery storage tender.

The UAE should deploy 300MW/300MWh of battery energy storage system (BESS) capacity in the next three years, according to one of its main utilities EWEC. 

Riyadh-based Tdafoq Energy will distribute Indian firm Delectrik Systems’ vanadium redox flow battery products in Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) markets and set up a manufacturing facility in Saudi Arabia.

Qatar General Electricity and Water Corporation (Kahramaa), has commissioned the Middle Eastern country’s first ever megawatt-scale battery storage system in time to measure the pilot project’s effectiveness at dealing with peak demand in summer.

In today’s episode, ESN’s Andy Colthorpe and Liam Stoker explore the way grids are changing in the Middle East to accommodate clean energy, the role virtual power plants are playing in Italy, and the contrasting role coal is playing in Germany and bush fire-stricken Australia.

Back on home turf this week: news in brief from around the world in energy storage.

PV manufacturer and EPC Philadelphia Solar says it has achieved commercial operation of an expansion phase to one of the first solar projects built in the MENA region where energy storage has been added.

Sodium sulfur (NAS) batteries produced by Japan’s NGK Insulators are being put into use on a massive scale in Abu Dhabi, the capital of the United Arab Emirates.

Lithium and sodium sulfur batteries will be used for the first time in new territories, after NEC ES and NGK inked deals to deliver projects to an island archipelago in Brazil and in Dubai respectively.

Philadelphia Solar, a vertically-integrated PV company headquartered in Jordan, said this morning it has reached financial close on a project to bring battery storage to a large-scale solar farm in the Middle East kingdom.