News in brief: Indian PM Modi visits Tesla and talks solar-plus-storage with Musk; Scottish renewable energy group forms energy storage division; Harvard team developing flow batteries reports findings.

The €32 million (US$36 million) Hydrogen Mobility Europe programme was launched today, with Germany, the UK, the Scandinavian countries and France signing up with the aim of expanding hydrogen refuelling station coverage across the continent. Andy Colthorpe speaks to one of the companies behind the project and power-to-gas energy expert Christopher Hebling of Fraunhofer ISE about this “modern fairytale” technology.

Plans by Italy’s grid operator to allow for the interconnection of energy storage to the network have resulted in the country’s first grid-connected solar-smoothing storage facility being inaugurated.

Battery-based energy storage integration and development company Younicos is to provide a 1MW turnkey battery system for a solar project in Texas from PV developer OCI Solar Power.

The Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI), a non-profit organisation funded by electric utilities to conduct research on issues related to the electric power industry in USA, is leading a project that will see renewable energy development company SunEdison supply battery systems for nine net-zero energy homes in California.

A small municipal utility will be the recipient of what is thought to be one of the first US projects to try out a combination of revenue streams from a storage battery linked to a solar farm.

Start-ups and established players in energy storage alike will compete for attention at this week’s Solar Power International, which opens today in Anaheim, California.

A solar farm connected to a huge battery will be built on the Hawaiian island of Kauai to use solar in the evenings to meet peak demand, under a 20-year contract between SolarCity and an electric utility co-operative.

After dropping a series of strong hints – including those given in interviews with PV Tech Storage – Enphase has confirmed that its AC battery will be launched in Australia first.

Swiss-headquartered power and automation specialist ABB is to use its PowerStore technology, involving flywheels with wind and batteries plus solar, to integrate renewable energy and reduce reliance on diesel fuel in two separate micro-grid projects in Africa.