The California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) has authorised a new centralised strategy for procuring long-lead-time resources, including long-duration energy storage (LDES).
Work has begun on the first pilot project using Form Energy’s iron-air battery, designed to cost-effectively store and discharge energy over multiple days.
A disused paper mill in Maine, US, will host a ‘multi-day’ battery storage system as part of a major project to reinforce and upgrade the electricity grid in New England.
The CPUC has proposed the procurement of over 10GW of new energy resources, including 1GW of multi-day long-duration energy storage (LDES) and another 1GW of 12-hour-plus LDES.
Startup Photon Vault Inc proposal in response to a request for information (RFI) from Microsoft, Google and Nucor, while unsuccessful, offered what it claimed could be a first for California.
Another utility agreement has been signed by Form Energy, the US startup which claims its iron-air battery can provide sufficient stored energy to ride through multiple days of low solar or wind production.
Energy Vault has secured a US licensing deal for its gravity energy storage technology and awards covering its other technologies there and in Southeast Asia, it said in its Q2 results.
