Tuesday, 11 August 2026

Two Manhattan subway stations will be examined for underground cooling using thermal energy networks under a pilot led by the Metropolitan Transportation Authority alongside Governor Kathy Hochul and Mayor Zohran Mamdani, Inside Climate News reported.

The study carries a price tag of USD 800,000, drawn from the receipts of the city's congestion-pricing scheme. Drivers pay that charge to enter Manhattan anywhere at or below 60th Street.

Heat readings at one of the two sites explain the interest. MTA chairman Janno Lieber told a Monday press conference that Brooklyn Bridge-City Hall averaged 96 degrees over last summer. The second station, Chambers Street, handles upward of 18,000 riders on a typical weekday.

Procurement is the next step. Mamdani's office said in a statement that a contract for the feasibility work should be awarded by fall. Should the technology be judged workable at the two stations, design work could start in early 2027.

Inside Climate News reported that success would make New York "the first state to use thermal energy networks in its subway system".

Australian households researching a home battery want to hear about virtual power plants (VPPs), but that interest fades once the battery is on the wall, according to a study by Energy Consumers Australia (ECA) reported by RenewEconomy. Owners become much less willing to hand over control of the asset.

The reluctance sits against a large and growing fleet. RenewEconomy reported that the Cheaper Home Batteries rebate drove almost half a million storage units into homes across the country by the end of July, and that every one of those batteries is VPP compatible.

That combination leaves aggregators with hardware already capable of responding to grid signals and owners unwilling to enrol it. ECA's finding points to the enrolment decision itself, made after purchase, as the choke point rather than the equipment.

RenewEconomy framed the question around whether the gap reflects tariff design or a lack of trust.

Adani Energy Solutions has won a tariff-based competitive bid worth about ₹8,500 crore, or roughly USD 880 million, to build the transmission backbone for green hydrogen and green ammonia facilities in the Vizag area of Andhra Pradesh, according to Hydrogen Fuel News.

The scope covers 1,582 circuit kilometres of 765/400 kV high voltage alternating current (HVAC) lines and two gas-insulated substations, sited at Pendurthi in Visakhapatnam and at Khammam-II, Hydrogen Fuel News reported.

Together that infrastructure is set to deliver around 4.5 GW of additional supply, per the same report.

Adani Energy Solutions is executing the build through a special purpose vehicle named Vizag Power, according to Hydrogen Fuel News.

The award ties grid construction directly to electrolysis and ammonia offtake at a single industrial cluster, with the transmission asset procured under the tariff-based competitive bidding route rather than negotiated allocation.

Tesla has started production of its Megapack 3 grid battery at a new Megafactory in Brookshire, Texas, with the first units coming off the line, according to Electrek.

The plant moved from groundbreaking to production in 16 months and carries a designed capacity of 50 GWh per year dedicated to Megapack 3, Electrek reported.

Each Megapack 3 unit holds about 5 MWh, against 3.9 MWh for the Megapack 2 XL, roughly 28% more storage inside the same ground footprint, per Electrek. Tesla says the new generation cuts thermal-system connection points by 78% compared with the previous unit.

The company is also selling the batteries in a pre-assembled configuration. A Megablock bundles up to four Megapack 3 units, about 20 MWh, with the transformer and switchgear integrated at the factory rather than on site, Electrek reported.

On siting and schedule, Tesla says the Megablock approach reaches 248 MWh per acre and can deploy 1 GWh in 20 business days, with installation running about 23% faster than its current approach. Those are company figures, not independently measured results.

Demand commitments are already attached to the product line. Tesla signed a $5 billion, 25 GWh Megapack deal with NatPower in Europe, according to Electrek.

ISO New England has asked federal regulators to approve changes to its Day-Ahead Ancillary Services market, seeking a decision by Sept. 14 so the adjustments can take effect Oct. 22, according to ISO New England Newswire.

The joint filing came from the grid operator and the NEPOOL Participants Committee and was submitted to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission in mid-July, ISO New England Newswire reported.

The grid operator described the effort as pursuing refinements that improve cost-effectiveness while preserving the reliability benefits of the DA A/S market.

Cost has been modest relative to the wholesale bill. Since the market launched in March 2025, DA A/S has accounted for less than 7% of total wholesale energy costs, according to ISO New England Newswire.

The Internal Market Monitor put the first-year cost impact at less than 1 cent per kilowatt-hour of wholesale electricity served.

The solar eclipse on 12 August 2026 will cut photovoltaic output across the Iberian Peninsula by roughly 5 GW at its peak, according to Red Eléctrica, which has set out preventive operating measures for the day.

That estimated drop equals about 13% of peak demand on a typical Wednesday in August, Red Eléctrica said.

The grid operator described the effect as temporary and limited in extent, and confined to photovoltaic generation rather than the wider generation fleet.

The Balearic and Canary Islands will see no significant impact on solar PV output from the phenomenon, according to Red Eléctrica.

To contain the swing, the operator said it will coordinate closely with official bodies, other European transmission system operators, and national generation and distribution control centres. It will also boost baseline reserves, strengthen safety margins, and keep the event under continuous real-time monitoring.

Revera Energy has begun construction on the 200 MW/400 MWh Windyhill battery energy storage system in Bearsden, Scotland, according to ESS News.

Windyhill is the first of three Scottish batteries in Revera's pipeline to break ground. ESS News reports the project reached financial close in February through non-recourse senior debt financing, a secured loan, provided by Santander CIB.

The other two projects, Hunterson and Kincardine, are each 400 MW four-hour duration systems with 800 MWh of storage capacity, per ESS News. Together the three sites carry investment of more than GBP 500 million (USD 665 million) and account for almost 2 GWh of storage capacity on Scotland's grid, in an area prone to transmission bottlenecks because of high levels of wind generation, ESS News reported.

Commercial operations at Windyhill are targeted for the first quarter of 2028, when Danske Commodities will provide route-to-market services, according to ESS News. Revera has also signed a 10-year revenue floor deal with Danske Commodities covering 100% of project capacity.

GE Vernova is the technology partner for Windyhill, with Mitie and OCU acting as delivery partners on site, ESS News reported.

Revera is headquartered in London and backed by global investment firm Carlyle, which set the company up in 2025, according to ESS News.

The European Commission is offering up to EUR 1.5 billion in interest-free loans for battery cell manufacturing projects across the European Economic Area (EEA) through the Battery Booster Facility, ESS News reported.

Applicants have until September 30 to file proposals, following publication of the call on July 28, according to ESS News.

The Commission may award up to EUR 500 million per project, with support covering up to 60% of eligible costs, ESS News reported. To qualify, a facility must have projected annual production capacity of at least 10 GWh.

Money for the facility comes from the EU Innovation Fund, whose resources are drawn from revenues generated by auctioning emission allowances under the European Union Emissions Trading System (EU ETS), according to ESS News. That ties the size of the available pot to carbon market receipts rather than to a dedicated budget line.

The Commission established the Battery Booster Facility on June 9, 2026, under the Battery Booster Strategy adopted on December 16, 2025, ESS News reported. The interest-free structure means recipients repay principal without a financing charge, a form of support distinct from the grants that have carried much of the Innovation Fund's earlier disbursement.

The 10 GWh eligibility floor rules out pilot lines and small-format cell plants, directing the money toward volume production. With a per-project ceiling of EUR 500 million against a total of EUR 1.5 billion, the facility can back a limited number of large plants in a single round.

Battery installations in Czechia reached 318 MWh over the first six months of 2026, ESS News reported, citing data published by the Czech solar association Solární Asociace. Additions in the same period of 2025 came to 174 MWh, putting growth at 83%.

Twelve standalone battery energy storage systems (BESS) with combined capacity of 108 MWh entered service on the Czech grid during the half. A year earlier, the equivalent standalone tally was zero.

That leaves about one-third of the H1 2026 volume in a segment with no commissioned projects in the year-earlier half.

Battery storage capacity in the country is expected to hit 6 GWh by the end of the decade, with analysts pointing to utility-scale projects as the main driver of that build-out, according to ESS News.

Sila will widen anode output at its plant in Washington and, for the first time, run cell manufacturing of its own, according to electrive.

The company's Moses Lake site spans about 65 hectares and started operating in autumn 2025, electrive reported. Phase one makes anode material only, enough to feed roughly 2 GWh of battery cells each year.

Sila's stated target for the site is up to 250 GWh, a level it wants to reach across the next five years, according to electrive.

Private money arrived before the expansion plan. Sila raised USD 300 million in July from investors led by Atreides Management and Sutter Hill Ventures, electrive reported.

Sila says its Titan Silicon material delivers around 20% higher energy density than leading graphite cells.

A standalone two-hour battery energy storage system (BESS) starting operations in Greece in 2027 could earn an internal rate of return of roughly 11-12%, according to analysis by Aurora Energy Research.

The forecast rests on a wholesale power price that stays high. Aurora expects Greek wholesale electricity prices to average around EUR 100/MWh through to 2029, the spread environment that determines how much a two-hour asset can capture on each daily cycle.

That price level is tied to gas. Gas-fired generation accounts for as much as 45% of Greek electricity supply, according to the Aurora analysis, leaving the market exposed to global gas developments.

Aurora quantifies one such exposure: a complete halt to remaining Russian gas supplies could push Greek gas prices up 27% and Greek baseload power prices up 13% by 2028. For merchant storage, higher and more volatile baseload pricing widens the arbitrage window the IRR calculation depends on.

Greek policy has so far released capacity in measured tranches. Three government-backed auctions approved a combined 900 MW of standalone storage, the last of them concluding in March 2025.

Developer appetite runs far ahead of that. Investors have filed applications for more than 12 GW of standalone battery projects in Greece, against a government target of 4.7 GW. The pipeline is therefore roughly two and a half times the official target and more than ten times the volume cleared through the auction rounds, which puts grid connection queues and permitting sequence, not returns, at the center of the constraint.

Aurora's 11-12% figure applies to unsubsidised, merchant assets rather than auction-backed capacity, a distinction that matters for the share of the 12 GW pipeline that must stand on market revenue alone.

General Motors has withdrawn from its battery cell joint venture with Samsung SDI at New Carlisle, electrive reported. The two companies first announced the plant in April 2023.

The project was sized at $3.5 billion, with an initial output of 27 GWh and a planned expansion to 36 GWh on a 275-hectare site, according to electrive. Cell production was first slated for 2026, then pushed back to 2027.

Samsung SDI intends to start the completed plant on batteries for energy storage systems, a decision electrive links to the company's aim of responding quickly to the rapidly growing US battery storage market.

The exit is GM's second from an unfinished cell plant. In December 2024 the automaker said it would leave a partly built facility in Lansing, Michigan, developed with LGES.

The retreat from cell manufacturing follows heavy accounting charges against GM's electric vehicle business. Per electrive, GM announced a $6 billion write-down in January 2026, after a $1.6 billion write-down in October of the previous year.