Wärtsilä has brought the 150MW/300MWh Bungama BESS online in South Australia, for owner and operator Revera Energy.

Wärtsilä spinning out its energy storage activities and divesting a 50% stake this week reflects difficulties in making the business profitable and synergistic within the wider group activities, analysts said.

Energy-Storage.news Premium speaks with Scott Blalock, general manager, integrated applications engineering, at BESS integrator Wärtsilä Energy Storage.

We catch up with Tamara de Gruyter, president of Wärtsilä Energy Storage, to discuss the system integrator’s strategy under new leadership.

Western system integrators face a continual ‘squeeze’ in where they add value in BESS and may struggle to keep up with the speed of technology innovation from China, Rept’s Andy Tang said in a video interview with Energy-Storage.news recently.

“Australia remains a multi-gigawatt proving ground for utility-scale energy storage systems,” says Kashish Shah of Wärtsilä Energy Storage.

Javier Savolainen of Wärtsilä explains how Australia’s battery storage and pumped hydro fleet have been impacted by the current heatwave.

In this Energy-Storage.news roundup,  Hydrostor receives permitting approval for its California project, Hawaiian Electric is set to begin construction on a Maui battery energy storage system (BESS) and Peregrine and Wärtsilä advance construction of a Texas BESS.

Utility Origin Energy has hired Wärtsilä to expand its battery storage installation at the Eraring coal power plant site in New South Wales, Australia.

Battery storage products from prominent international providers Sungrow, Wärtsilä and Chint Power have undergone recent fire safety tests.