Jennifer Downing, senior advisor to the Loan Programs Office at the US Department of Energy (DOE) and author of a recent report into virtual power plant technology, speaks to Energy-Storage.news.

News in brief from around the world in energy storage.

A 25MW four-hour (100MWh) battery storage project has been connected to the grid by Arizona utility company Salt River Project (SRP).

Siemens has signed a letter of intent for the construction of a turnkey 100MW / 200MWh large-scale battery energy storage system (BESS) in Wunsiedel, northern Bavaria, Germany.

A seasonal heat storage plant which will have a capacity of about 90GWh looks set to begin construction next year in Vantaa, Finland, with water stored in underground caverns heated to 140°C using renewable energy and waste heat.

The cooling of commercial and industrial (C&I) buildings accounts for a significant percentage of energy use and greenhouse gas emissions (GHGs), but can instead be turned into “powerful energy assets.”

Energy storage project developer Convergent Energy + Power has contracted GE Renewable Energy to supply key equipment to a three-site large-scale solar-plus-storage hybrid resource project in New York State.

What’s being described as Europe’s largest electric car charging park will be kitted out with 2MWh of stationary battery storage systems from Tesvolt, charged with “green energy from the grid”.

Salt River Project is to build the largest solar-plus-storage project in Arizona, just as an historic coal plant is put to rest.

The US state of Iowa got its first grid-scale solar-plus-storage system at the beginning of this year, and this has already been followed by the completion of another, larger battery project in the US state this week.