Tuesday, 18 August 2026

A newly published interconnection framework would hand every customer a firm service allocation alongside three separate tranches of flexible service, each less assured than the one before it, pv magazine reported. The framework, called Grid 2.0, comes from a team under Chris Shelton, senior vice president at AES Corporation, and is pitched as "a standardized, automated way to integrate load and supply".

Speeding interconnection through flexible service is the effect the drafting team claims for the design.

The case the authors make rests on how rarely the binding hours occur: peak periods driving infrastructure buildout can amount to as little as 30 hours per year, and planners have long sized the system for them anyway, pv magazine reported.

Texas supplies the working example. Regulators and analysts have credited the connect-and-manage treatment of new generators on the ERCOT transmission grid with the pace of solar, wind and storage additions in the state, according to pv magazine.

Five names appear on the publication, four of them from AES and one from Fluence, the energy storage firm. The same group set up a Grid 2.0 Task Force to carry the work forward, pv magazine reported. AES Next, LLC; Fluence; and Tapestry are listed as supporting organizations.

AJ Hall said the first version of the protocol is more likely to launch on a large load than on generation, since current interconnection and transmission rules make that route simpler to implement.

Sunrun has signed a multi-year agreement with Voltus to pool residential storage-plus-solar systems across the PJM and MISO grid regions into a distributed power plant serving AI hyperscalers, according to ESS News.

The arrangement routes hyperscaler money to household hardware. "In collaboration with Voltus, we are providing critical capacity from home batteries supported by funding from hyperscalers," said Sunrun CEO Mary Powell. ESS News describes Sunrun as America's leading residential installer.

Voltus is running the deal through its Bring Your Own Capacity (BYOC) program, which the company announced in 2025 and billed as a way for hyperscalers to bring capacity to the grid and improve their odds of securing an interconnection for a new data center, ESS News reported.

The mechanism has a precedent with a named buyer. In June, Google signed a three-year contract with Voltus under BYOC for up to 100 MW of electricity capacity to help power new data centers in the PJM region, which ESS News calls the data center capital of the world.

Aggregation of this kind sits alongside a far larger project already on Sunrun's books. In June, Sunrun, Tesla, and Renew Home announced plans for a 16.8 GW virtual power plant, per ESS News. The Voltus agreement differs in its counterparty: rather than selling flexibility into utility or wholesale programs, the capacity is contracted behind the meter for compute demand.

The interconnection angle is the commercial core of BYOC. Queue positions, not turbines, are the binding constraint for hyperscalers adding load in PJM, and Voltus pitched the program as a route to demonstrate capacity that improves an applicant's interconnection prospects. Enlisting Sunrun's installed residential fleet in PJM and MISO gives that pitch a physical asset base spread across thousands of homes.

For homeowners, the return is a payment stream sourced from hyperscaler budgets rather than from ratepayer-funded demand response, based on Powell's description of the funding.

A 10 MW/20 MWh battery energy storage system will be built at the Perlen Papier AG site in Switzerland, with BESS Perlen AG funding the project, according to ESS News. BESS Perlen AG is a Swiss joint venture between Perlen Industrieholding AG and the Valyou Investment Foundation.

The hardware comes from ADS-TEC Energy, and the installation will sit at the plant of paper product manufacturer Perlen Papier AG, ESS News reported.

Commissioning is scheduled for the end of 2026.

Revenue will arrive in two stages. ESS News reported that the Perlen system will first be used mainly to supply ancillary services, which contribute to the balance and stability of the electricity grid. The battery will subsequently also trade in day-ahead and intraday electricity markets, adding further revenue streams.

The two-hour duration implied by the 10 MW power rating and 20 MWh of energy capacity fits that sequencing: short-duration assets are typically sized for frequency products before they take on wholesale arbitrage.

Risen Energy has signed two memorandums of understanding with Ukrainian energy company Ascania Energy covering up to 100 MW of solar capacity and 200 MWh of utility-scale battery storage in Ukraine, according to ESS News.

The division of work splits supply from execution. ESS News reported that Risen Energy will provide the PV modules, utility-scale energy storage systems and technical support, with Ascania Energy acting as EPC contractor and leading local project development.

What the two companies signed is a cooperation framework rather than a binding build order. No financial terms and no project timelines have been disclosed, per ESS News.

Risen Energy is not new to the Ukrainian market. ESS News reported the module maker has supplied 12 solar projects in the country, among them the 323 MW Pokrovskaya Solar Power Plant. That installed base gives the storage-side expansion a delivery track record to build on, though the MoUs themselves commit neither party to a schedule.

On the battery side, cumulative BESS deliveries from Risen Energy exceeded 10 GWh globally as of Q2 2026, according to ESS News. Measured against that figure, the 200 MWh contemplated in the Ukrainian framework is a small fraction of the company's shipped volume to date.

The pairing of 100 MW of generation with 200 MWh of storage implies roughly two hours of storage duration relative to the solar capacity named in the agreements.

Portugal is aiming for 3 GW of batteries by 2030 under its National Energy Storage Strategy, a third above the 2 GW figure carried in the National Energy and Climate Plan (PNEC 2030), with the strategy target stepping up to 4.5 GW ten years later, ESS News reported. Installed batteries in the country stood at just 20 MW at the close of 2025, per the annual review published by renewables association APREN.

The gap is meant to narrow through auctions. September brings two procedures worth a combined 1.05 GW of grid-connected capacity, according to ESS News. Standalone storage competes for a grid allocation capped at 750 MVA. A separate cap of 300 MVA is reserved for new renewable generation paired with storage on site.

Grant funding has already moved. A January 2025 award spread EUR 100 million (USD 116 million) across 43 storage projects totalling roughly 500 MW, ESS News reported.

Lithium-ion remains marginal next to the incumbent technology. APREN's statistics put pumped hydro at 2.8 GW at end-2025, and the National Energy Storage Strategy sets that fleet at 3.9 GW by 2030 and 5.26 GW by 2040.

CALB, a Chinese battery manufacturer, disclosed a plan in January for a lithium-ion cell plant in Portugal sized at 15 GWh a year, according to ESS News.

Susana Serôdio of APREN tied further build-out to three conditions: how fast licensing and project delivery move, whether developers get grid access, and "above all, the creation of sufficiently stable revenue streams".

Enphase Energy Inc. has begun taking preorders for the IQ Battery C80, its first commercial battery storage system for the United States market, with shipments promised for the first half of 2027, according to Solar Builder.

The unit is an all-in-one, AC-coupled system delivering 80 kWh of energy capacity inside what Solar Builder describes as a compact enclosure. A single system provides up to 40 kVA of continuous power, and it arrives with battery packs and microinverters already integrated, the outlet reported.

Enphase expects the product to be manufactured entirely at U.S. facilities, which the company says makes it 100% FEOC compliant, per Solar Builder. That domestic-production claim is the commercial hook for installers weighing procurement rules on sourcing.

Coverage from Solar Builder also states the system carries a 15-year limited warranty.

The preorder window opens well ahead of delivery, with the launch commitment set for the first half of 2027 rather than a specific ship date.