While the likes of California, Massachusetts and New York make headlines as the leading US states for energy storage policy, initiatives from the ground up in New Hampshire, Georgia and Michigan have been announced already this year.

Ben Hill is widely known in the solar and energy storage industries as the former Trina Solar executive who drove the Chinese company towards a leading position in the European market in the days of the large-scale boom before leaving to become Tesla’s VP for Europe, Africa and the Middle East. UK start-up Solo Energy is among a number of companies he is now working with closely as an advisor.

Hornsdale Power Reserve (HPR), the 129MWh battery energy storage system (BESS) deployed by Tesla and developer Neoen in South Australia in just 100 days, has been found to have had a positive impact on the local network.

Steven Marshall, the Premier of South Australia, has welcomed the start of assembly-line work at Sonnen’s new factory in Adelaide, while rival Tesla’s virtual power plant (VPP) in the state is beginning its second phase of development.

​Arsenal football club’s Emirates Stadium has become home to what could be the first behind the meter battery of its size aimed at wholesale energy trading over frequency response.

A proposal by Pacific Gas & Electric (PG&E), one of California’s three main investor-owned utilities (IOUs) to deploy large-scale energy storage to replace peaking natural gas plants has been approved by the state’s regulator.

As well as Elon Musk remarking that the company may have had its “best ever quarter” for solar since the SolarCity takeover, Tesla’s energy storage deployments have enjoyed a ramp up, while a fellow exec hinted the stationary battery business is constrained by cell supply.

Charges of fraud levelled at Elon Musk after the Tesla CEO recently tweeted his desire to take the company into private ownership have resulted in a settlement with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and an agreement that Musk will step down in his other role as chairman of the company’s board.

Food wholesaler Philip Dennis Foodservice has installed energy storage units totalling over 4MW at one of its UK offices in an effort to generate revenue from grid services, rather than making savings from behind-the-meter activity.

Tesla’s former EMEA vice-present has taken on an advisory role for Solo Energy as the company seeks to build out its vision of a virtual power plant driven by residential and commercial battery systems.