The development of systems capable of storing over six hours of energy economically is being supported in New York with an Innovation Challenge launched by the New York Power Authority (NYPA) and Urban Future Lab, a cleantech innovation centre.

Liquid air energy storage (LAES), so far only deployed at scale at two sites in England, will be available in a number of new territories after manufacturer Highview Power signed a deal claimed to be worth €1 billion (US$1.12 billion).

Snap poll to decide whether goal to add 3.5GW in pumped storage capacity and 2.5GW in batteries in little longer than a decade becomes hard law.

China’s State Grid Corporation will build 6GW of pumped hydro storage as part of ongoing efforts to cut rates of wind and solar power curtailment.

The US Department of Energy (DOE) has announced that it will provide assistance to “techno-economic” studies for two pumped storage hydropower plants, with a combined generation capacity close to 2GW.

In order to address intermittency in its grid, the South Australian Government has introduced a AU$50 million (US$36 million) Grid Scale Storage Fund (GSSF) to help accelerate the deployment of new large energy storage projects, including pumped hydro, hydrogen, gas storage, solar thermal, bioenergy and battery storage.

Minister for Energy Dr Megan Woods attended an event to officially inaugurate the first grid-scale battery energy storage system in New Zealand, hosted by energy retailer and project owner Mercury Energy.

Hyderabad-headquartered firm Greenko Energies has received state government approval for a huge renewable energy project involving 1GW of solar, 550MW of wind and 1.2GW of pumped energy storage in the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh.

An inauguration event was held last week to unveil a new battery energy storage system combined with pumped hydro storage in Bavaria, Germany, after multi-national utility Engie completed work on the project.

News in brief from around the world of energy storage.