LG Energy Solution, formerly known as LG Chem, has announced plans to invest in significantly increased production capacity within the US for batteries to be used in electric vehicles (EVs) and energy storage systems (ESS).

UK investment management group Downing LLP has announced its first utility-scale battery storage site in the country, a 50MW/53MWh project in Nursling, Southampton on England’s southern coast.

The Asia-Pacific region will continue to be the world’s leading centre of lithium-ion cell manufacturing for the next decade, but it won’t just be price reductions in batteries that will drive a 30% drop in front-of-meter battery storage in key markets China, Australia and South Korea.

Targeting a national economic goal in mind of making hydrogen competitive with natural gas, Australia’s government has put AU$70 million (US$44.3 million) into a “deployment funding round” for renewable hydrogen.

Former Governor of New York George Pataki has welcomed the possible siting and construction of a vanadium redox flow battery (VRB) factory in the state.

According to reports carried last week in national outlets including Yonhap News and the Korea Herald, defective battery cells were not found to be the cause.

Grid-connected energy storage deployments have enjoyed a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 74% worldwide in the years 2013 to 2018, with a “boom” in deployment figures expected over the next five years, analysis firm Wood Mackenzie has said.

Kokam has been awarded contracts to deliver 40MWh of battery energy storage at solar power plants in South Korea, including its newest High Energy Lithium Nickel Manganese Cobalt Oxide (HE NMC) batteries.

South Korea’s government is planning for 100MW of battery storage as part of a nearly 3GW hub of solar PV and wind on reclaimed land in Saemangeum, which is an estuarine tidal flat on the coast of the Yellow Sea.

Smart energy and inverter company SolarEdge will acquire the South Korean battery manufacturer Kokam.