Last week, two significant milestones in the emergence of a market for large-scale battery storage on the grid were laid in Ontario, Canada.

The first contract awards for Ontario’s expedited procurement have been announced, in which 739MW of battery storage bids were successful.

As distributed energy resources such as residential solar rooftop increase in the next decade, aggregation into virtual power plants could save US utilities up to US$35 billion, according to The Brattle Group.

Ameresco has nearly completed its three-site, 2.1GWh battery energy storage system project for utility Southern California Edison.

NV Energy has issued a request for proposals (RFP) for dispatchable energy and energy storage resources for the Nevada utility’s service area.

Renewables developer Intersect Power has brought a 310MWp PV, 448MWh energy storage system project online in California.

Wells Fargo, MUFG and Silicon Valley Bank have completed US$260 million of construction financing for Leeward Renewable Energy’s Chaparral Springs solar-plus-storage project in California.

Cost inflation and supply chain issues have forced California utility PG&E to increase the prices it will pay for 2GWh of battery storage projects, in a move which has been approved by regulators.

New developer GridStor has acquired a portfolio of in-development battery storage projects in LA, California, from Upstream Energy, totalling 500MW/2,000MWh.