Growth in renewables and corresponding market pricing is the key driver for the commercialisation and global adoption for vanadium flow batteries (VFBs) and an important reason why we will see further growth for this technology over the years to come, says Ed Porter of Invinity Energy Systems.

Iron electrolyte flow battery company ESS Inc has become the latest energy storage industry player to target public listing of its stock, announcing a merger with a special purpose acquisition company (SPAC).

Update 25 March 2021: NGK Insulators responded to a request for more info from Energy-Storage.news and confirmed that the NAS battery storage system will be sited at the 5MW Uliastai solar PV project which is included in the ADB’s Upscaling Renewable Energy Sector project for Mongolia.

A rocket and space vehicle launch station of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) will be equipped with NGK Insulators’ sodium sulfur (NAS) battery storage to help ensure the reliable operation of its electric power systems.

While lithium-ion continues to dominate big project announcements worldwide, three providers of long-duration non-lithium battery technologies have claimed various milestones in commercialisation.

Sodium-sulfur (NAS) batteries made by NGK Insulators will be supplied by a subsidiary of chemicals company BASF for power-to-gas projects by South Korean company G-Philos in global territories.

Long duration energy storage is an “essential” technology to help accelerate renewable deployment, according to the US Department of Energy’s Dr Imre Gyuk, but will require “appropriate regulatory frameworks”.

Norwegian firm EnergyNest is to deploy its thermal battery storage technology at a manufacturing plant in Austria.

Recommendations made to the government of India as it prepares to publish its union budget for 2020 from industry group India Energy Storage Alliance (IESA) include measures to support both the upstream of industry and the downstream of clean energy deployment.

By the middle of the 2020s, using hybrid ‘portfolios’ of batteries and renewable energy sources will economically outperform existing gas power plants, while the combination of technologies is already cost-competitive with building new gas plants, a new report from the US-based Rocky Mountain Institute has said.