Wednesday, 1 July 2026

Red Eléctrica has begun construction of the double-circuit 220 kV Anchuelo-Complutum transmission line in the Comunidad de Madrid, according to the company. Red Eléctrica is the Redeia subsidiary responsible for transmission and operation of the electricity system in Spain.

The company said work has started with civil engineering on seven transmission towers.

According to Red Eléctrica, the line will run through the municipalities of Anchuelo, Los Santos de la Humosa, and Alcalá de Henares, and will include both overhead and underground sections.

Red Eléctrica said its investment in the Comunidad de Madrid under the current electricity planning totals €205 million to date.

Red Eléctrica is building a battery storage system next to the existing Sant Antoni substation in Ibiza with a total capacity of 90 MW and 67.5 MWh, according to a company press release.

The investment in the battery system amounts to €77 million, according to Red Eléctrica. That figure is included in the list of projects eligible for funding from the European Union's NextGenerationEU Recovery, Transformation and Resilience Plan.

The company said the new infrastructure will allow Ibiza to cover 100% of its demand for much of the year, up from the current annual average of 65%.

Beatriz Corredor stated that the Sant Antoni and Menorca batteries will form the largest system of battery storage fully integrated into the transmission grid in southern Europe, and the first to be installed in Spain.

Installation of the batteries is expected to be completed in summer, according to Red Eléctrica. That will be followed by a pre-operational and testing phase before the system's final entry into service.

Airengy and Hagag Europe will invest around EUR 55 million to build a compressed-air power plant in Romania, pv magazine reported. Both companies are listed on the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange.

Development will run across two phases, with a planned discharge capacity of 25 MW and storage of up to 5 GWh. The first phase carries an estimated construction cost of EUR 4.5 million and will add roughly 200 MWh of storage at the outset.

Each of the two partners will take a 40% stake through a special purpose company, leaving 20% with an unnamed third party. As part of its move into Romanian energy infrastructure, Hagag Europe will lock in usage rights for the salt caverns that host the plant.

Construction is set to start in 2027, with commercial operation targeted for early 2028, Joshua Tzvi, VP Business Development Technologies at Airengy, told ESS News.

The Romanian plant dwarfs Airengy's existing assets, which run from a 10 kW pilot in central Israel to a 250 kW plant now operating in southern Israel. The company also has a collaboration with Kistos Energy Storage in the United Kingdom and is working with natural gas storage firm SEFE in Germany to assess a large-scale site, pv magazine reported.

GM will build its grid-scale storage business around sodium-ion battery technology, stepping away from the lithium-ion chemistry that dominates the segment.

The carmaker joins other vehicle manufacturers in the stationary storage market, but its bet on sodium-ion sets it apart. GM said the chemistry is lower cost and safer than lithium-ion.

Sodium-ion cells swap lithium for sodium, sidestepping lithium carbonate price swings and the cobalt and nickel supply chains that shape lithium-ion economics. The chemistry carries lower energy density than lithium iron phosphate, a drawback in passenger vehicles but less binding for stationary sites where installed cost per kWh and cycle life outweigh footprint.

GM has not disclosed capacity targets, manufacturing locations, or launch dates for the storage products. Its cost and safety claims have not been independently verified against lithium iron phosphate.

Lithium iron phosphate sets the price floor for utility-scale projects, and a sodium-ion entrant will be judged against it on levelized cost of storage.