News in Brief: Tesla’s Powerpack 2 is installed in a utility-scale project for SCE, Texan utility CPS opens EPC bids for a large-scale solar-plus storage project and Eguana and LG Chem expand their storage partnership.

Tesla and Panasonic’s Gigafactory in the Nevada desert has now started making high performance cylindrical battery cells of the type used in its stationary storage and forthcoming Model 3.

Ireland’s first Tesla Powerpack commercial-scale energy storage system has been installed successfully recently, while England’s first was officially opened with a visit from a government minister yesterday.

Residential energy storage company SONNEN announced Tuesday that Blake Richetta, former North American sales manager for Tesla Energy, will help lead SONNEN’s expansion into the US as vice president of sales.

The merging of Tesla and SolarCity into a single entity creates a new company well-placed to deliver a full range of energy-related products and services to consumers, analysts have said.

The soon-to-be-merged Tesla and SolarCity have completed a solar-plus-storage microgrid on an island in American Samoa that will reduce the local population’s reliance on costly and cumbersome diesel imports.

The merger between Tesla and SolarCity has been approved by shareholders.

A New Zealand network operator will install a grid-scale battery from S&C Electric as part of a pilot programme.

Tesla has acquired German engineering firm Grohmann Engineering to form a new advanced automation segment of its business, producing manufacturing equipment for its factories in the US.

Tesla-SolarCity could become an energy equivalent to an Uber or AirBnB, with a merger between the two creating “an integrated sustainable energy company, which does not own any centralised generation assets”, one expert has commented.