Wednesday, 30 September 2026

CATL has signed an agreement with Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners to supply a 313 MW, 1,639.45 MWh battery energy storage system for the La Alegria Solar project in the Mexican state of Campeche, according to ESS News. Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners is developing the project.

CATL says La Alegria will be Mexico's first battery energy storage system exceeding 1 GWh and the country's largest battery storage system to date.

The 1,639.45 MWh capacity now announced is approximately 5.2 times the 314.98 MWh included in the project's approved environmental documentation, according to ESS News.

Testing of a limited number of shallow aquifers near fracking sites in southwestern Pennsylvania found generally low radium levels, though too few samples were available to draw firm conclusions for the region, according to a report from researchers at Penn State University cited by Inside Climate News.

The team sampled 91 private water wells and springs in 2024, mostly in Washington County, one of the most heavily fracked areas of Pennsylvania, according to Inside Climate News.

Only six samples showed shallow groundwater mixed with brine, and all detected radium was below regulatory levels, according to the report.

Elevated groundwater salinity can corrode pipes and raise levels of metals in aquifers and wells, including lead and radium, the researchers said.

Elgin has acquired the 200 MW Blackhall Solar Farm in County Meath, Ireland, from GP Joule, according to Mercom India.

Elgin, a solar and energy storage independent power producer, expects to invest approximately EUR 200 million in developing and constructing the project, Mercom India reported.

The Blackhall solar project is at a late stage, with consent received and grid connection arrangements in place, according to the same report.

Elgin said the acquisition expands its late-stage development pipeline in Ireland and increases the capacity it can enter in the upcoming Renewable Electricity Support Scheme auction.

Shell has approved the second phase of the LNG Canada project, according to Cedar News. The final investment decision cleared the way for an expansion of the export facility in Kitimat, British Columbia.

Fluor Corporation announced that its joint venture with JGC Corporation was selected to deliver engineering, procurement, fabrication, construction and commissioning for Phase 2 of the LNG export facility, according to Business News This Week. The joint venture received notice to proceed following the final investment decision.

Fluor will recognize its USD 7.5 billion share of the contract in the third quarter of fiscal 2026, according to Business News This Week.

Phase 2 will add one LNG storage tank and two liquefaction trains, doubling the facility's production capacity to approximately 28 million tonnes per year.

Petronet LNG raised the capacity of its Dahej terminal to 22.5 million tonnes per annum from 17.5 million tonnes per annum at the end of FY26, according to Livemint.

The added capacity comes as utilization is set to fall. Motilal Oswal Financial Services expects Dahej utilization to drop to 70% in FY27 from 91% in FY26, before recovering to 82% in FY28.

High LNG prices are expected to keep utilization low in FY27, according to Livemint.

Growth for the Kochi terminal rests on pipeline connectivity. JM Financial expects Kochi volumes to rise from 1.2 million tonnes per annum in FY27 to 2.7 million tonnes per annum by FY29, supported by the extension of pipeline connectivity to Bengaluru that links the terminal to the national gas grid.

Ningbo-Zhoushan Port has completed its 100th bonded LNG bunkering operation, reached when the MSC Josephine received LNG at the port, according to ship and bunker reporting. The milestone marks the 100th operation since Zhejiang's first bonded LNG bunkering operation in June 2023.

The operations have supplied more than 500,000 m3 of LNG in total, according to the same report.

The port has expanded its LNG bunkering service from a pilot operation to regular, larger-scale activity, according to Manifold Times.

India is replacing roughly 250 million conventional electricity meters with connected smart meters under the Revamped Distribution Sector Scheme (RDSS), according to TimesTech.

As the rollout accelerates, attention is moving past meter installation toward the connectivity, interoperability, cybersecurity, grid resilience and AI capabilities needed to support modern energy infrastructure, TimesTech reported.

The country's next energy economy will be defined less by individual technologies and more by how effectively the different parts of the system work together, according to The Economic Times.

India needs to plan generation, transmission and demand as an integrated system, said Dr Sai Baba D., Additional Secretary at the Ministry of Power, in his National Policy Keynote as reported by The Economic Times.

NTT Anode Energy, JERA Cross and NTT Docomo start a demonstration on October 1 that pairs solar plants with a grid-connected battery and several Docomo telecom buildings in western Japan, according to Telecompaper.

At the heart of the trial is a timing question: whether batteries filled by surplus daytime solar can cover the buildings when solar output drops off, including overnight, and lift their hourly carbon-free supply rate, according to IBTimes.

The partners characterize the demonstration as Japan's first to run hourly matching with grid-scale batteries under the EnergyTag Standard, according to IBTimes.

Historical operating data will feed the analysis, drawn from western Japan solar plants owned or procured by NTT Anode Energy, one grid-scale battery storage site and several Docomo telecom buildings in the region, according to IBTimes.