Tuesday, 15 September 2026

Eos Energy Enterprises has received an $87 million advance from the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) to fund a second production line at its Thorn Hill facility in Warrendale, Pennsylvania, according to Solar Builder.

Solar Builder reports the advance reimburses roughly 80% of eligible costs tied to the Thorn Hill plant. With this tranche, the battery maker has drawn about $178 million from its DOE facility since 2024.

The disbursement is a first advance under the second tranche of Eos's loan agreement with the DOE's Office of Energy Dominance Financing, and the company says the funding will go toward its zinc-based long-duration energy system products.

Romania's environment ministry, MMAP, has closed the rulebook for a national prosumer battery-storage subsidy after a public consultation that generated more than 200 comments, ESS News reported.

Under the final guide, eligible systems must now start at 10 kWh of storage capacity, down from the earlier 12 kWh floor. Cycle-life requirements moved the other way: batteries must be rated for 5,000 charge-discharge cycles instead of 3,000, and every funded installation has to ship with a battery management system to track performance and safeguard the hardware.

Program administrator AFM will score applications once enrollment opens, awarding funding by ranking until the budget runs out rather than clearing them in the order received.

Romania's regulator ANRE counted 332,684 prosumers on the grid as of April 30, representing roughly 3,789 MW of installed capacity. The Romanian Photovoltaic Industry Association said utility-scale battery capacity in the country has crossed 1 GW/2 GWh this year.

Cement producer Holcim is moving to tap thermal batteries for cleaner heat, according to Canary Media. The outlet reports that a Boston-based firm is developing technology to use clean electricity to produce cement.

Canary Media describes cement making as a highly carbon-intensive process that involves burning fossil fuels to blast materials with searing heat.

Statkraft and SSE have completed what they describe as the first financial swap referencing Modo Energy's ME BESS GB (2H) Index, a benchmark tracking average revenue earned by operational two-hour battery energy storage systems in Great Britain, according to ESS News.

The contract settles against the index itself rather than the performance of either company's own battery fleet, ESS News reported. Statkraft will pay SSE if the index falls below an agreed strike level, and SSE will pay Statkraft if it rises above that level.

Statkraft's head of origination for the UK and Ireland said the company expects to pursue further transactions of this kind across its 9,000 MW portfolio, according to ESS News.

The two companies did not disclose the swap's size, strike level, duration or other commercial terms.

Holcim has integrated two Joule Hive thermal batteries into one of its cement making facilities, according to CleanTechnica.

The Joule Hive units were developed by Electrified Thermal Solutions, an MIT spin-off, CleanTechnica reported. The company began researching the benefits of electrified firebrick more than 12 years ago, per the same report.

New England consumed 31,278 GWh of electricity across June, July, and August 2026, according to ISO New England. The grid operator said summer consumption came in less than 1% above summer 2025.

Wildfire smoke briefly reshaped the region's generation mix mid-season. ISO New England estimates that on July 15 and 16, smoke reduced solar output by up to 50%, or more than 3,000 MW at times.

Auto parts manufacturer Terrepower has introduced a new brand, Ontility, dedicated to EV battery lifecycle solutions along with energy storage systems and components, according to Solar Builder.

The Daphne, Alabama-based firm said the launch spans both North America and Europe. Terrepower CEO Duncan Gillis said the launch strengthens the company's ability to serve customers across those regions with battery lifecycle solutions, reinforcing its position in sustainable manufacturing.

Solar Builder reported that EV adoption rates in Europe grew 38% from 2024 to 2025.

Renewables paired with storage could shave as much as INR 85 billion (USD 886.4 million) off Rajasthan's 2030 power procurement bill compared with building new coal to cover reliability gaps, a study by New Delhi-based CEEW found, as reported by ESS News.

The research examines a February 2025 plan from Rajasthan's distribution companies to sign contracts for 3.2 GW of new coal generation to plug expected supply gaps.

Of the projected 5.5-billion-unit shortfall in 2030, roughly 90% lands in hours when solar is off the grid and the system needs fast-responding capacity, CEEW found.

State electricity demand expanded at an 8% compound annual rate from fiscal 2022 through fiscal 2025, and the study projects consumption reaching 1.5 times the fiscal 2025 level by fiscal 2030.

CEEW estimates the renewables-and-storage route would support 27,000 full-time-equivalent jobs by 2030, against 2,560 tied to the new coal option. The same route would trim power-sector CO2 output by 24%, to 52 million metric tons versus 68 million under coal.

"Our analysis shows that RE-plus-storage can meet Rajasthan's future reliability needs at lower cost than the proposed coal capacity," Disha Agarwal, a fellow at CEEW, told ESS News, referring to the non-solar-hour capacity gap the discom proposal targets.