Wednesday, 15 July 2026

Octopus Energy has launched Nook, a line of residential battery storage systems that includes a 2 kWh plug-in unit called the Nook Cube and a 5 kWh wall-mounted unit called the Nook Colossus, according to ESS News.

The Nook Cube plugs into a standard household socket, and owners can stack additional units to reach 10.5 kWh. The wall-mounted Colossus can be built out to 30 kWh for larger properties.

Both units work with rooftop solar and carry a 12-year warranty. Octopus says the batteries store power when prices fall and release it when prices climb.

Octopus will bring the Nook range to the United Kingdom in 2027, then extend it to Germany, France, Italy, and Spain.

Separately, Octopus set out its spending plans for Italy. The company has put more than EUR 250 million into the country so far and intends to lift that to more than EUR 1 billion by 2030, according to ESS News.

Octopus also unveiled Swaptopus, a joint venture with CATL to build a European battery-swapping network for electric trucks. The first swapping hubs are due to open in the United Kingdom in 2027.

The Nook launch and the first Swaptopus hubs are both scheduled for the United Kingdom in 2027.

Tesla is launching the 'Cell Giga Challenge', an innovation program for battery cell production at its Gigafactory Berlin-Brandenburg in Grünheide, Germany, according to electrive. Startups can test their technologies directly in cell production under the scheme.

Applications are open until 24 July, and the programme is set to begin in August, according to electrive.

In May, Tesla announced plans to raise the planned annual capacity of future cell production from eight to 18 GWh and to invest an additional USD 250 million, electrive reported. Combined with previously announced measures, total investment in the cell production setup comes to around USD 350 million, according to Tesla and JUNI.

At an annual capacity of 18 GWh, the plant could produce battery cells for approximately 250,000 to 350,000 electric vehicles per year, according to electrive.

Tesla recently indicated that production is expected to commence in the first half of 2027.

OMS Group began construction of CS Resilience, the third vessel in its GREAT-Class fleet, with a first steel cutting ceremony at CRIST's shipyard in Gdynia, Poland, according to Offshore Engineer OEDigital. The cable-laying vessel is scheduled to enter service in 2028.

CS Resilience is one of two next-generation cable-laying vessels being built under the company's partnership with Ulstein, announced in January 2026, Offshore Engineer OEDigital reported.

The vessel will feature Ulstein's X-BOW design and POWER Variable Speed Generator technology, a combination OMS Group said is intended to improve seakeeping performance, fuel efficiency and emissions performance.

OMS Group currently operates five cable vessels and has four new vessels under construction, according to Offshore Engineer OEDigital. CS Genesis, CS Triumph, CS Resilience and CS Alliance make up the company's largest fleet investment to date.

Datuk Lim Soon Foo, Founder and Chairman of OMS Group, said the decision to partner with Ulstein was driven by more than its shipbuilding expertise. "We sought a partner that shares our commitment to innovation, quality, operational excellence and sustainability," he said.

About one-third of India's recently commissioned renewable energy capacity faces grid curtailment as transmission expansion lags new additions, according to ICRA reported by pv magazine.

Roughly 33% of 54.8 GW of recently commissioned renewable capacity was being evacuated through the temporary general network access (T-GNA) route as of May 2026, ICRA said, per pv magazine. Curtailment under T-GNA runs highest during solar generation hours, ranging from 50% to 60%, according to the same reporting.

The backlog sits against a heavy build schedule. A pipeline of 107 GW spanning solar, wind, hybrid, hydropower, pumped storage and thermal, all already granted connectivity, is set to integrate into the interstate transmission system (ISTS) between fiscal 2026 and 2031, pv magazine reported.

Transmission delivery has been slipping. Of projects commissioned under the tariff-based competitive bidding (TBCB) route by March 2026, only 12% finished on schedule, with a median delay of more than 10 months, according to ICRA cited by pv magazine.

ICRA's Ankit Jain warned that slippages in the timely commissioning of upcoming transmission infrastructure cannot be ruled out, which could impact renewable capacity additions or result in continued grid curtailment, materially affecting project returns, pv magazine reported.

Meeting government targets requires annual additions of about 20,000 circuit kilometers of transmission lines and 120 GVA of substation capacity, ICRA said, according to pv magazine.

The ratings agency estimates the transmission sector will need investments of INR 5 trillion to INR 6 trillion between 2026 and 2032 to evacuate electricity from more than 900 GW of non-fossil fuel generation capacity by FY2035-36, including about 548 GW of solar and wind, pv magazine reported.

A 100 MW/200 MWh battery called Hertz 2 entered service on July 7 in Aruküla, Estonia, taking the combined output of the site and its sister unit Hertz 1 to 200 MW and 400 MWh, according to ESS News.

Baltic Storage Platform built both units as a joint venture linking Evecon, Corsica Sole, and Mirova, ESS News reported.

The pair drew EUR 170 million (USD 193.9 million) in private capital, with no subsidy behind the investment call, according to Evecon CEO Karl-Joonatan Kvell.

An EUR 85.6 million construction loan from the EBRD, Nordic Investment Bank, and Edmond de Rothschild Asset Management funded the build, ESS News reported.

Wired into the Elering-operated network, the system will sell frequency regulation and trade in day-ahead and intraday electricity markets.

That service matters because Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania have balanced their own grid frequency since leaving the Russian grid and joining continental Europe in February 2025, ESS News reported.

Tesla has introduced Tesla Home, an energy management platform that runs on an artificial intelligence engine named Opticaster, according to Electrek. The company says the system automates daily choices about when to store and draw electricity to trim a customer's bill.

The platform ships as standard on every Powerwall, and existing owners need no extra hardware to use it, Electrek reported.

Electrek reported Tesla's own figures for Opticaster: more than a hundred million hours of operational experience and, in the company's words, "tens of millions of dollars in value from opex savings and grid service revenue" spread across thousands of customers worldwide. The same engine runs Tesla's virtual power plants, which paid Powerwall owners nearly USD 10 million in 2024, per Electrek.

Most of what users see arrived through a Tesla app update. Version 4.58.6 began rolling out this week and pulls previously scattered settings, including backup reserve, off-grid modes, and operational modes, into one Home Controls menu, according to Electrek.

Rate Plan Charging shifts electric vehicle charging to the cheapest hours of the day, and it functions when a Powerwall is paired with a Gen 3 or Universal Wall Connector, Electrek reported.

The interface connects hardware Tesla already sells, spanning Powerwall, solar panels, Solar Roof, and the Wall Connector, and now adds Eaton's AbleEdge smart breakers, according to Electrek.

Serentica Renewables has taken the largest allocation among bidders in Solar Energy Corp. of India's Firm and Dispatchable Renewable Energy (FDRE) VII tender, and signed a power purchase agreement covering a 600 MW/2,400 MWh solar-plus-storage project, according to ESS News.

The tender targets an assured peak supply of 4,800 MWh, drawn from projects tied to the interstate transmission system, ESS News reported.

Contract terms bind the project to a demand fulfilment ratio of 70% each month and 85% across the year, according to ESS News.

An independent power producer founded in 2022, Serentica holds 8,700 MW of contracted renewable capacity and more than 3,200 MW operational, ESS News reported, with a $650 million investment from KKR behind it.

The pairing of generation and storage can serve peak demand while supporting grid stability, said Akshay Hiranandani, CEO of Serentica Renewables.

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) said its Office of Energy Dominance Financing has finalized a loan of up to USD 3.26 billion for AEP Texas, aimed at cutting electricity costs and upgrading the state grid.

Over 30 years, the financing should deliver about USD 685 million in electricity savings to more than one million Texas households and businesses, according to DOE estimates. The department tied added grid reliability and thousands of jobs to the same investment.

The money backs roughly 100 transmission projects statewide. That work covers rebuilding and reconductoring lines already in place alongside new transmission stretching close to 2,800 miles, per the DOE.

Upgraded lines are set to carry twice their current power load, with the projects hooking new baseload generation into the network, the department said. DOE also expects fewer power interruptions from the build-out.

Energy Secretary Chris Wright said the loan will "modernize Texas' electric grid" and "help keep electricity costs down for Texans".

The department counts the AEP Texas deal as its third concurrent conditional commitment paired with a financial close, and the third utility financing to reach completion under the Energy Dominance Financing Program.

Battery energy storage system (BESS) offtake in Germany during the first half of 2026 ran 7% above the total contracted across all of 2025, according to Pexapark's latest market brief.

Fixed-price agreements accounted for most of that jump. Pexapark put those volumes at 254 MW for the whole of 2025 and 642 MW in the first half of 2026, a 153% rise.

Tolls still dominate the German market, with day-ahead swaps a newer option, Pexapark said. Three swap deals have been announced so far, two of them in June.

Lenders are pushing developers toward contracted revenue. Akaysha Energy said German banks want 60% to 80% of a project's revenue under contract before releasing project debt to BESS developments.

Pexapark also reported that Europe contracted close to 24 GWh of BESS capacity under flexibility purchase agreements and optimization agreements in 2025, triple the 2024 figure, in its Renewables Market Outlook 2026.

Itaipu Binacional is planning a pilot battery project tied to its floating solar plant, a test meant to show how storage can smooth the meeting of solar output and hydropower, ESS News reported.

The project sits at the planning stage for now. Its installed capacity, storage duration, battery chemistry, investment size, procurement route, and build timeline all remain undecided, according to details Itaipu gave pv magazine Brazil.

Engineers plan to shape the pilot around the same technical criteria drawn up for Brazil's proposed Capacity Reserve Auction for battery storage, ESS News reported. That template sets a minimum four-hour storage duration, steady power delivery across that window, and defined performance and availability thresholds.

Itaipu is running the work with Itaipu Parquetec. The pilot will test energy shifting, operational flexibility, and how well floating solar meshes with hydroelectric output.

Enio Verri, Itaipu's Brazilian director general, said studies point to the reservoir holding more than 1 GW of floating solar capacity, ESS News reported.

Researchers at the University of Kiel have developed a communication system that transmits sensor data from inside a battery cell without additional data lines, according to electrive.

The method uses the power electronics already responsible for controlling the battery's charging and discharging processes, sending measurement data over existing power connections, electrive reported.

An initial cost estimate cited by electrive found the approach could reduce expenses by around 35% compared with conventional solutions that rely on separate sensor cables.

The results have been published in the journal Communications Engineering, according to electrive.

The developers envision long-term applications in electric vehicles, stationary battery storage systems, and wind and solar energy installations, electrive reported.

Spain and Portugal have inaugurated a new 400 kV electricity interconnection between Pontevedra and Viana do Castelo, according to Red Eléctrica. The link raises exchange capacity between the two countries by about 1,000 MW, reaching 4,200 MW from Spain to Portugal and 3,500 MW from Portugal to Spain.

Red Eléctrica said the connection is expected to allow an additional 281 GWh of renewable energy to be integrated each year, cutting CO2 emissions by 113,000 tonnes annually.

The project was executed by Red Eléctrica in Spain and Redes Energéticas Nacionais (REN) in Portugal, and was designated a Project of Common Interest by the European Commission.

On the Spanish side, the route required building the 400 kV Bearíz and 400/220 kV Fontefría substations, a 30-kilometre connecting line between them, and a 21.7-kilometre interconnection line running to the Portuguese border, according to Red Eléctrica. The Portuguese section measures about 68 kilometres, continuing from the border to the Ponte de Lima substation.

Both markets will now benefit from an additional interconnection, bringing the total to ten, said REN Chairman Rodrigo Costa.

Australia's home battery market recorded 1.07 GWh of registrations in June, down 28.3% from May, according to SunWiz. Monthly installations fell by nearly 30%, according to RenewEconomy.

The systems being installed are right-sizing to between 20 and 30 kWh, down from an average of around 50 kWh, according to RenewEconomy.

SunWiz managing director Warwick Johnston said June installation numbers were roughly triple the levels of one year earlier, when the federal rebate was just one month old.

Johnston described the slowdown as a healthy reset after the rebate-driven surge.