Saturday, 18 July 2026

AmpereHour Energy has opened a battery energy storage system (BESS) manufacturing and integration site in Pune, India, sized for a planned annual capacity of 5 GWh, according to ESS News.

Output at the plant will cover cabinet and containerized battery DC-AC blocks aimed at utility-scale projects, plus commercial and industrial storage applications, ESS News reported.

The company runs a platform called AH-Suite for digital factory acceptance testing and quality management, which handles system traceability, performance validation and commissioning from factory to field, per ESS News.

Rahul Shelke, managing director of AmpereHour Energy, said the move into BESS manufacturing draws on the firm's prior work as a system integrator, according to ESS News.

The Philippines' Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) says it is reworking the rules governing the country's high-voltage transmission system through the 2026 edition of the Philippine Grid Code, according to pv magazine.

The ERC proposes halving net-metering interconnection reviews from 20 working days to 10, pv magazine reported. Where a distribution utility misses the deadline to install bidirectional meters, the application would clear on a deemed-approval basis.

The draft framework scraps the 1 MW ceiling on distributed energy resources and puts digital submissions and e-signatures on equal legal footing with paper filings, according to pv magazine. It would also allow crediting across multiple sites and give renewable output priority dispatch in off-grid areas.

The country counted 23,684 net-metering prosumers as of June 30, together holding 232 MW, pv magazine reported, citing figures published on the ERC website. Another 181 distributed energy resource participants accounted for a further 226 MW.

ERC Chairperson and CEO Francis Saturnino C. Juan tied the update to keeping the system dependable as more renewables and new technologies connect, saying the 2026 code is meant to keep the grid "stable, reliable, and secure".

The reforms follow a government requirement, imposed earlier this year, for intermittent renewable plants above 10 MW to install energy storage, according to pv magazine.

Elestor and Windpark Zeewolde are building a 20 MW hydrogen-iron flow battery with capacity ranging from 200 to 800 MWh, according to Hydrogen Fuel News. The partners are targeting grid congestion and higher wind energy use.

Hydrogen Fuel News reports the system is designed to capture excess wind energy when demand is low and release it when the grid can accept more power. The pairing links long-duration storage directly to a wind site facing congestion constraints.

Elestor is described by Hydrogen Fuel News as a specialist in long-duration energy storage. Windpark Zeewolde is described as one of the continent's largest onshore wind farms.

The project ties a single storage unit to a large onshore generation base, with the stated aim of shifting wind output across periods when the grid cannot immediately absorb it.

A research team from Spain's CIRCE Technology Center found that hydraulic storage can be more cost-effective than batteries for photovoltaic irrigation systems, according to pv magazine. The team reported that combined storage maximizes self-sufficiency.

The study examined a real irrigation facility at a Spanish vineyard fitted with a 112 kW photovoltaic system and six irrigation pumps, pv magazine reported. The researchers compared three energy management scenarios: battery storage, hydraulic storage through a water reservoir, and a combination of both technologies.

Hydraulic storage achieved a simple payback period of approximately 8.2 years, according to pv magazine. Battery storage was not considered economically viable because the additional savings it generated were insufficient to offset the investment cost, the outlet reported.

The work was carried out as part of the European HarvRESt project, according to pv magazine. The findings were published in Sustainability under the title "Energy Management Optimization in Photovoltaic-Powered Irrigation Systems: A Comparative Analysis of Electrical and Natural Storage Strategies".

A standalone battery system rated at 11 MW and 22 MWh in Halle (Saale), Germany, has secured financing from UmweltBank, ESS News reported. The plant will run on merchant market revenues alone, with no floor-price or tolling agreements underpinning the deal.

CCE developed the project, according to ESS News. UmweltBank said the loan runs for a 10-year term, allowing operational flexibility and revenue generation for the investor.

Nine weeks passed between the customer's investment decision and the first loan disbursement, said Holger Donhauser, head of renewable energy financing at UmweltBank.

Assessing long-term technical performance and future revenues is the main hurdle in battery storage financing, said Goran Basic, a member of UmweltBank's management board.

UmweltBank said it will finance its first wind farms with integrated battery storage next year.

Heat pump shipments outpaced fossil-fuel furnace shipments by 32 percent in the first quarter of the year, according to a Building Decarbonization Coalition report cited by Grist.

Kevin Carbonnier of the Building Decarbonization Coalition said heat pumps have outshipped fossil-fuel furnaces for four consecutive years. The first-quarter shipments narrowly missed beating out air conditioning units, according to the report.

In new construction, the two technologies run close. In 2024, 46 percent of new housing in the US included a heat pump, compared with 47 percent that used forced-air furnaces, Grist reported. Three quarters of new apartments in the US are heated electrically.

Heat pumps have a coefficient of performance between 2 and 4, making them at least twice as efficient as resistance heating, according to Grist. A networked geothermal utility system can be up to seven or eight times more efficient than the same homes using gas furnaces.

A combined home and business site in the Perth hills ran without interruption during a storm that ESS News described as a one-in-50-year event and that cut supply across nearby areas, according to Renoz Energy chief executive Simon Chan cited by the outlet. Chan said the recently commissioned installation held 100% uptime while surrounding customers lost power.

The project paired Renoz Energy with Gala Energy Systems, according to ESS News. It brought together 50 kWh of Renoz LV Stackable batteries, 32 kW of inverters and 18 kW of solar, feeding the residence and the business at once.

Chan said Western Australia is nation-leading in battery adoption, according to ESS News.

Renoz Energy's average battery energy storage system install this year measures 50 kWh, Chan said. The company recently passed 1 MWh of battery sales, according to ESS News.

ISO New England's latest Regional System Plan Project List update estimates USD 281 million in power transmission reliability investments through 2030, according to ISO New England Newswire.

The grid operator counts 13 active projects as of the June 2026 update, including 3 under construction, 8 planned, and 2 proposed. One upgrade was placed into service in the last few months, and no new projects were added, according to the June 2026 update.

Most of the active projects sit in Massachusetts, with seven, and Maine, with five, ISO New England said. Connecticut has one active project, while New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Vermont have none.

Since 2002, ISO New England's power system planning has facilitated USD 13.1 billion in transmission investment, with 886 project components placed into service.

The Planning Advisory Committee's next meeting is scheduled for July 28 at 9 a.m. via Webex/teleconference.

A cooling method that sprays dielectric liquid onto lithium-ion battery cells cut coolant use by roughly 85% in testing, according to the Korea Institute of Machinery and Materials (KIMM), which describes the design as a first for spray-based immersion cooling of battery packs, per Offshore Engineer OEDigital.

In the design, jets of non-conductive fluid hit the tops of the cells while the lower part of the pack sits partially submerged in the same liquid, according to Offshore Engineer OEDigital.

During trials, a pack was run at a 4C charge-discharge rate, a stress point that mimics aggressive fast charging. Cell temperatures stayed below 35°C, according to Offshore Engineer OEDigital.

The efficiency gain comes from how little fluid the method needs. KIMM reports the technique uses just 10-20% of the coolant that conventional immersion cooling requires, a reduction of about 85%, according to Offshore Engineer OEDigital.

Funding came through South Korea's Ministry of Climate, Energy and Environment under its Core Technology Development Project for Energy Demand Management. The findings appeared in Applied Thermal Engineering (Vol. 282, 2026), according to Offshore Engineer OEDigital.

KIMM researchers intend to apply artificial intelligence to screen for new dielectric fluids with thermophysical properties tuned to improve cooling further, according to Offshore Engineer OEDigital.

Frontier Power USA (FPUSA) has selected the Wildfire BESS Project, a 100 MW / 400 MWh battery energy storage project in Caldwell County, Texas, from Bimergen Energy, according to GlobeNewswire Energy.

The project is expected to use Eos Energy Enterprises Z3 long-duration batteries, per GlobeNewswire Energy. Closing remains contingent on the negotiation and execution of definitive documentation and the successful closing of Eos's rights offering.

With Wildfire added, FPUSA's closed and selected projects total approximately 1.8 GWh, GlobeNewswire Energy reported. That equals about 90% of FPUSA's 2 GWh capacity reservation agreement with Eos.

An earlier selection, the Stella project, covered four projects totaling approximately 230 MW / 920 MWh of battery storage capacity, according to GlobeNewswire Energy. Those projects were also selected for the FPUSA platform and are expected to use Eos Z3 batteries.

FPUSA reports visibility on approximately 4 GWh of near-term pipeline opportunities across multiple markets, per GlobeNewswire Energy.

FPUSA is working with KKR Capital Markets LLC to structure long-term project financing across the platform, GlobeNewswire Energy reported. That engagement targets investment-grade financing solutions across bank and institutional markets.

Average lithium-ion battery pack prices fell to about $108/kWh in 2025, roughly 93% below 2010 levels, according to ESS News, which attributed the decline largely to expanded lithium iron phosphate (LFP) manufacturing.

Large stationary LFP packs approached $70/kWh last year, ESS News reported. The outlet said LFP has become the dominant chemistry for stationary energy storage because safety and durability matter more than weight in those applications.

Lithium batteries carry round-trip efficiencies of about 90% to 95%, a characteristic ESS News cited as central to lithium's dominance in battery energy storage systems (BESS). Under favorable electricity pricing conditions, many commercial and industrial storage projects can achieve payback periods of three to five years, according to the outlet.

Supply chains remain heavily concentrated. China controls most global lithium refining capacity along with much of the production of cathodes and battery cells, ESS News said.

Sodium-ion batteries are beginning to enter the commercial market, according to ESS News, which said the technology offers potential advantages in cold-weather performance, cost, and supply chain diversification. Its energy density remains below that of LFP, and production volumes are still a fraction of lithium's.