Sunday, 19 July 2026

Wood Mackenzie placed Sungrow first in its inaugural global ranking of battery energy storage system (BESS) integrators, ahead of Tesla and CATL, according to ESS News.

The assessment arrived as annual global battery storage installations exceeded 100 GW for the first time in 2025, ESS News reported.

BYD placed fourth in the ranking, while Envision and Trina Storage shared fifth place, according to ESS News. Fluence, LG, Canadian Solar, and Wartsila completed the top 10.

Nine of the top 10 companies invested more than 4% of annual revenue in research and development during 2025, ESS News reported. Six of the top 10 have more than a decade of experience integrating BESS projects.

The Wood Mackenzie report awarded 24 manufacturers a Grade A rating, according to ESS News.

Austin Energy and Entergy Texas have selected FranklinWH's residential home storage system for new virtual power plant (VPP) demand response programs, according to Solar Builder.

The Austin Energy pilot is capped at 1,500 participants, Solar Builder reported. The utility is targeting 78 MW of demand capacity by 2027 and 270 MW by 2035 through the effort.

Entergy Texas's Battery Storage Solutions program will pay customers up to USD 325 per year for participating, according to Solar Builder.

FranklinWH now participates in 25 VPPs nationwide, said CEO Gary Lam.

Texas ranks second in the Solar Energy Industries Association's (SEIA) Solar State by State rankings, according to Solar Builder. About 60% of the state's new residential solar installations come with paired battery storage.

Fewer than one in four home battery owners have signed up to a virtual power plant (VPP), according to a recent ACCC Electricity Inquiry cited by RenewEconomy.

The finding points to low participation among battery owners in schemes that pool household storage for grid use.

Plico is described as Australia's first 100% privately funded residential virtual power plant, according to RenewEconomy. It launched in Western Australia in 2017 and is led by chief executive Robbie Campbell.

A retired coal mine site in the Hunter region will be rebuilt to dispatch 300 megawatts of pumped hydro and solar power over a 12-hour window after New South Wales cleared the plans, according to RenewEconomy.

NSW planning minister Paul Scully said the $1.8 billion Stratford Pumped Hydro and Solar project has been approved for construction at Yancoal Australia's former Stratford Mining Complex, an open-cut coal site in the Gloucester Basin north of Newcastle, RenewEconomy reported.

Gloucester Coal, a Yancoal subsidiary, first put the project forward in 2024, when mining stopped at Stratford, according to RenewEconomy.

No pumped hydro scheme had won final planning approval in NSW in the preceding six years, RenewEconomy reported.

Stromnetz Berlin has picked GE Vernova to build two 110 kV gas-insulated substations, one in Wittenau and one in Neukölln, according to GE Vernova. The company booked the order in April 2026 and did not disclose the financial terms.

Both substations will run on GE Vernova's g³ insulation, which the company says cuts the insulating medium's global warming potential by roughly 99% against SF₆.

Work on the Wittenau site is scheduled to span June 2026 through March 2031. The Neukölln build is set to run slightly longer, from June 2026 into January 2032.

Europe's grids need proven equipment that can be deployed quickly, said Frank Ennenbach, Central Europe Regional Leader for GE Vernova's Grid Systems Integration business line. GE Vernova says its technology underpins roughly 30% of Germany's electricity generation.

Forty-six local projects across 11 towns will share $2.1 million in the opening round of the Central-West Orana Renewable Energy Zone community grants, according to RenewEconomy. Acerez runs the program and expects it to distribute up to $4 million to local initiatives over its full course.

The first-round money splits into two funding tiers, RenewEconomy reported. Significant grants run from $50,000 to $1 million, while smaller awards start at $3,000.

Acerez brings together Acciona, Cobra, and Endeavour Energy. EnergyCo appointed the partnership to develop and operate the Central-West Orana REZ network infrastructure, according to RenewEconomy.

"These grants are about backing the people and places that make regional communities strong," said Steve Masters, Acerez CEO.

Israeli battery company Airengy is partnering with salt and chemicals producer Nobian to evaluate its technology for a 2.5 GWh compressed air energy power plant at a salt cavern in Hvornum, Denmark, according to ESS News.

Nobian will assess Airengy's technology for the project, which would connect to the company's existing salt cavern, ESS News reported.

The planned battery will have a power output of between three and 10 megawatts, paired with long-duration energy storage capacity, according to ESS News.

The well diameter at the salt cavern is the limiting factor constraining the system's capacity, said Airengy's Tzvi Joshua. A well sits in the center of the cavern, and only a certain volume of compressed air can pass through a given diameter.

The Danish project is Airengy's fourth compressed air energy power plant partnership in Europe, according to ESS News. It follows earlier projects in the United Kingdom, Romania, and Germany.

Italy's renewable-linked battery storage capacity reached 11,941.72 MWh by the end of June 2026, with total power output of 6,000.88 MW, according to ESS News.

That capacity was spread across 943,729 electrochemical storage systems integrated with renewable energy sources as of June 30, ESS News reported.

Solar made up the largest share of the country's renewable fleet. According to ESS News, solar represented 53.6% of Italy's total renewable energy capacity, with 46,605.58 MW installed.

Italy added 6,720.97 MW of new solar generation over the past 12 months, an annual increase of 16.85%, according to ESS News.

Western and central Europe face raised odds of heat waves through July and August 2026, with strong solar irradiation and weak wind pushing photovoltaic output past seasonal norms, according to Montel.

German solar generation could run as much as 20% above normal if June-like weather patterns return, Montel said, making the region's largest power market a focal point for the swings ahead.

When negative price risk climbs, flexible generators and battery operators are likely to keep pulling volume out of day-ahead auctions, Montel said.

Montel points to southeastern Europe as the region most exposed when extreme heat hits, where high temperatures strain supply and lift prices. That exposure showed up in June, when heat forced output cuts at Hungary's Paks nuclear plant, which led to higher prices.

The Port of Newcastle has received approval to store grid-scale lithium-ion batteries at its Mayfield Multipurpose Terminal, becoming the first port in New South Wales (NSW) to do so, according to RenewEconomy.

The port announced the approval this week, though it was granted late last year. Since then, the port says it has received over 700 battery storage containers for grid-scale projects across NSW, according to RenewEconomy.

Among the projects drawing on the terminal is the 500 MW/2,000 MWh Tomago big battery, which AGL is building just west of Newcastle, RenewEconomy reported.

Batteries have also been stored at the port for Origin Energy's 700 MW/3,160 MWh Eraring battery and the 408 MW/816 MWh Bellambi Heights battery energy storage system (BESS), according to RenewEconomy.

Only around 24 per cent of household battery owners take part in a virtual power plant, according to the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission's latest Inquiry into the National Electricity Market.

The finding came despite rapid growth in household batteries, the ACCC said.

The regulator also found that virtual power plant customers generally have lower electricity bills.