Friday, 21 August 2026

Chile is pushing energy storage to salvage value from an oversized solar fleet, S&P Global Energy analyst Angel Cancino told pv magazine.

Solar capacity in Chile reached 12 GW by the end of 2025, the largest renewable technology in the country's electricity mix, according to pv magazine.

Cancino describes the storage build-out as a response to overbuilt photovoltaic capacity rather than a standalone expansion, per the same report.

Batteries operating on Australia's main grid have compressed the gap between the low prices at which they charge and the high prices at which they dispatch by nearly 80%, according to RenewEconomy.

That spread is the core of the storage business model. Narrowing it cuts directly into returns, and RenewEconomy reports the fleet is crimping its own profit margins as a result.

The same behaviour has flattened the solar duck curve, the daily demand shape left behind when midday photovoltaic output displaces other generation. Charging through the solar-heavy middle of the day and discharging into the evening peak lifts the trough and shaves the peak, which is precisely what erodes the arbitrage the units were built to capture.

RenewEconomy attributes a significant fall in wholesale electricity prices on the main grid over the past year to the combination of new renewables and the growth of grid-scale and household batteries.

The outcome sets a limit on how far the current revenue model stretches. Each additional unit of storage competes with the units already dispatching into the same evening window, and household systems add to that volume without appearing on any developer's balance sheet.

Batteries in Australia's NEM now discharge 15-20 GWh on many days, up from 1-2 GWh in early 2024, RenewEconomy reported.

The outlet puts recent daily peaks above 20 GWh. Set against the 1-2 GWh recorded in early 2024, the peak figure is roughly ten times the earlier daily level.

RenewEconomy says batteries have moved past a supporting role. Solar output charged during the day is being pushed into evening periods that fetch higher prices, taking work away from gas peakers.

That dispatch pattern hits gas plant scheduled for the post-sunset window, since stored solar covers demand the peakers would otherwise serve.

RenewEconomy describes the NEM as increasingly operating as a renewables-and-storage system, with fossil fuels, and gas in particular, tied to the costly end of the market.

Capital Dynamics has acquired a ready-to-build battery energy storage project of 170 MW / 680 MWh at Knockanure in County Kerry, Ireland, ESS News reported.

The site has secured a grid connection at the nearby 110 kV Knockanure substation, according to ESS News. Planning authorities cleared the project in Oct. 2025.

The four-hour system is classified as long duration by Ireland's grid operator EirGrid, ESS News reported.

The buyer runs USD 15 billion in assets under management and advisement across 14 offices, according to ESS News.

It is the investor's second battery position on the island. In March the firm announced a GBP 100 million (USD 136 million) joint venture with Northern Ireland developer Solo Renewables for a 150 MW project at Islandmagee in County Antrim, ESS News reported.

Mid and East Antrim Borough Council approved the Islandmagee scheme in February 2026, six months after submission, according to ESS News. Once operational the plant will provide up to eight hours of storage, equivalent to 1,200 MWh.

That pairs a four-hour asset in the south with an eight-hour asset in the north under the same owner.

Swedish renewables developer OX2 has started construction of a 100 MW / 200 MWh battery energy storage system (BESS) in the Hunter Valley, Australia, according to ESS News. The site sits about 250 kilometers from Sydney.

The development is a hybrid. ESS News reported that it also includes a 135 MW solar farm, which will connect to the Hunter-Central Coast Renewable Energy Zone (REZ). Combined construction costs for the Muswellbrook solar farm and BESS are estimated at USD 215 million, according to the same report.

The project occupies the site of a coal mine that shut down in 2022, near the town of Muswellbrook, and is co-developed with Idemitsu Australia. ESS News said the Muswellbrook BESS will supply enough electricity to power about 52,000 homes.

Financial close was reached in May 2026, with operation expected in 2028, per ESS News. The build is expected to support around 200 construction jobs.

Offtake is contracted. The Muswellbrook development is one of nine projects signed under long-term Amazon Australia power purchase agreements, part of a 430 MW, AUD 2.8 billion renewable energy buy-up by the technology company, according to ESS News.

Quinbrook has selected GE Vernova for the third stage of the Supernode Battery Energy Storage System (BESS) project in Queensland, Australia, the equipment maker said in a press release.

Stage 3 adds 260 MW and 1,216 MWh of four-hour storage, according to GE Vernova. The order was booked in Q1 2026.

With all three stages in place, the Supernode campus is expected to hold 780 MW and 3,075 MWh of battery storage on a single strategic site, GE Vernova said. That makes the third tranche roughly a third of the campus by both power and energy.

The stage has cleared Generator Performance Standards (GPS) acceptance, and GE Vernova described it as its first grid-forming battery energy storage project in Australia. Grid-forming inverters set voltage and frequency references rather than following an existing grid signal, a function historically supplied by synchronous plant.

Headroom at the site remains. GE Vernova said Supernode has capacity for a further 520 MW of expansion, which could include battery storage, data centres or a combination of both. That optionality places the campus at the intersection of two demand streams competing for the same grid connection: storage capacity contracted to firm variable generation, and computing load seeking firm, co-located power.

Researchers at TU Graz increased the ionic conductivity of lithium titanate by deliberately introducing defects into the crystal lattice of the anode material, according to electrive. The team said the modification "activated a previously block pathway" for lithium ions.

The defects were oxygen vacancies. To create them, the researchers heated the lithium titanate in a low-oxygen atmosphere to 300 degrees Celsius, electrive reported.

Evidence for the faster ion movement came from two measurement techniques used in combination: conductivity spectroscopy and nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy.

The experimental work, by Bernhard Gadermaier and Martin Wilkening, was published in the journal Science Advances.

Lithium titanate is used as a battery anode material, and electrive reported that the conductivity result potentially opens up new possibilities for it.

TenneT has finished directional drilling under the beach and part of the seabed at Maasvlakte and installed nine plastic protective conduits in the boreholes, creating a protected passage for offshore wind farm cables, Offshore Engineer OEDigital reported.

The landing point serves three projects: IJmuiden Ver Beta, IJmuiden Ver Gamma and Nederwiek 2. According to Offshore Engineer OEDigital, each wind farm gets a connection rated at 2 GW, adding up to 6 GW routed through the Maasvlakte crossing.

Cable pulling comes next. The electricity cables will be drawn from the sea through the conduit pipes to land starting in the spring of 2027, per the same report.

First power is set for later in the decade. Offshore Engineer OEDigital reported that the first sustainable electricity from IJmuiden Ver Beta is expected to come ashore via the Maasvlakte in 2029.

The drilling method keeps the cable route below the beach and the nearshore seabed rather than trenching through it, with the conduits acting as the permanent sleeve for the circuits that follow. Sequencing the boreholes years ahead of cable pull separates the civil works from the offshore installation campaign, so the shore crossing is finished before the cables arrive.

Arevon Energy has begun operating the 300-MW Nighthawk Energy Storage Project in Poway, California, according to Power Magazine.

The company announced on August 13 that the project had come online, describing it as its largest standalone battery energy storage project, Power Magazine reported.

Nighthawk is a standalone battery installation rather than a storage system paired with a generating asset, per the same account. At 300 MW, it is the biggest such facility in Arevon Energy's operating fleet on a standalone basis.