ACWA Power has agreed to deploy wind energy and battery capacity to help power what is claimed will be the Middle East and Africa region’s ‘first battery gigafactory.’

Hithium has launched a battery storage solution for use in desert conditions and plans to build a 5GWh production plant in Saudi Arabia.

Sungrow has agreed a partnership to deploy 160MW/760MWh of battery energy storage systems (BESS) and 165MW of PV inverters for a large off-grid project – AMAALA – in Saudi Arabia.

Saudi Arabian oil firm Aramco has entered into a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with Rondo Energy, a thermal energy storage company, following an equity investment.

ACWA Power has signed agreements to develop 1.4GW of solar PV and 1.2GW of energy storage projects in Uzbekistan.

During first China-Arab States Summit, Sungrow signed battery storage supply agreement for Saudi Arabia’s new ‘smart city’ megadevelopment.

Riyadh-based Tdafoq Energy will distribute Indian firm Delectrik Systems’ vanadium redox flow battery products in Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) markets and set up a manufacturing facility in Saudi Arabia.

A consortium of developers has achieved financial close for US$1.3bn in debt facilities for the Red Sea project, a huge resort under construction off the coast of Saudi Arabia which plans to have the largest off-grid battery energy storage system at 1,200-1,300MWh.

Huawei Digital Power has said it will supply battery energy storage system (BESS) technology to what is thought to be the world’s largest off-grid energy storage project to date. 

This edition of our news in brief from around the world focuses on novel technologies promising several hours or more of competitively-priced energy storage.