Thursday, 8 October 2026

Foss & Company closed a USD 58 million tax equity investment to finance a utility-scale battery energy storage project developed by GridStor in Hidalgo County, Texas, according to citybiz. The deal marks the second transaction between the two companies.

The financing was structured as a partnership flip transaction and will generate Section 48 Investment Tax Credits, citybiz reported.

GridStor's battery energy storage system is scheduled to enter service in October 2026.

A timed flexible electricity connection at Translink's Short Strand Bus Depot in Belfast can power up to 75 electric vehicles daily, according to NIE Networks and Translink, who describe it as Northern Ireland's first such connection.

The deal ties Translink's bus charging to overnight hours, when the source says demand on the electricity network runs much lower. That window let NIE Networks draw on spare capacity already in place and connect the depot without major construction works.

Translink had gone to NIE Networks for extra capacity to electrify its bus fleet. Early assessments found that a conventional connection would have meant sizeable upgrades to the local network and a wait of up to two years.

Origin Energy Ltd is seeking environmental approval for a major expansion of the battery precinct at its Eraring power station on the New South Wales Central Coast, according to Kalkine Media. The project would make the site home to the largest battery in Australia.

The expanded facility would rank as the largest battery in Australia and overtake a recently completed system in Saudi Arabia, Kalkine Media reported.

Eraring Battery 1 is operating at 460 MW and 1,770 MWh, according to GreentechLead. Origin lists the combined Battery 1 and Battery 2 development at 700 MW and 3,160 MWh when complete.

The Linux Foundation has started OpenGrid, a project to build open source infrastructure for power grid planning.

Rather than replace the grid-planning tools that utilities and operators run today, OpenGrid aims to connect them through a shared data and interoperability layer, according to the Linux Foundation. The foundation says the project should let planners move between the commercial and open source software they already use, which it expects to cut the time, cost and technical hurdles of planning for rising electricity demand.

The first application, called the OpenGrid Translator, is under development for release in 2027. It is designed to pass data and models between widely used commercial platforms and open source tools.

Finnish startup Truman Data has opened its Energy Coop virtual power plant platform to its first customers in Finland, offering a revenue-sharing model for property owners and municipalities as an alternative to long-term battery-as-a-service contracts, according to ESS News.

The company does not sell or own battery hardware, instead taking a share of what customers earn and helping them arrange financing for battery systems, ESS News reported.

Truman Data said data from a 70-building municipal pilot showed optimization cut annual electricity costs by 11.4%, according to ESS News.

TenneT Germany has signed on as a development sponsor for Frequensea's subsea cable decommissioning tool, alongside DEME and Subsea Cable Assets (SCA), according to Offshore Engineer OEDigital. The device targets buried offshore cables and is designed to pull them up with less disruption to the seabed.

At its core is a patented vibration-induced fluidisation method that loosens the soil gripping buried cables, umbilicals and pipelines, according to Offshore Engineer OEDigital. The developer says the lower soil resistance lets smaller vessels handle recovery while cutting energy use.

TenneT Germany, an offshore transmission system operator, will feed in its subsea power cable expertise during the tool's development.

Once a testing programme at Deltares wraps up, TenneT Germany intends to weigh the technology for decommissioning offshore cables in the North Sea.

Nala Renewables has issued a notice to proceed for construction of the 125 MW / 250 MWh Nala Vuolijoki battery energy storage system in Finland, according to ESS News. The company said the notice to proceed marks the project's transition from development into construction, describing Nala Vuolijoki as one of the largest BESS projects in Finland to start construction.

Despro was appointed engineering, procurement, and construction management contractor and will provide local engineering support, according to ESS News. Destia Oy will serve as balance-of-plant contractor, while Sungrow will supply the battery storage technology.

The project secured long-term financing from Rabobank.

Adding on-site battery storage to a modeled German solar project raises its forecast annual spot-market revenue from EUR 250,000 to EUR 400,000, according to ESS News. The analysis treats a photovoltaic-only system as the base case, with spot-market revenue of EUR 250,000 and EUR 145,000 under Germany's renewable energy subsidy program, the EEG.

With a co-located battery energy storage system (BESS), EEG revenue climbs to EUR 155,000, ESS News reported. The revenue uplift comes from charging the battery during periods of negative pricing and discharging during higher-priced evening hours, according to ESS News.

Beyond the revenue gain, co-locating solar and storage can cut both capital and operating costs through shared infrastructure, ESS News said, while allowing more efficient use of existing grid-connection points.

Lengthy permitting timelines in the German BESS market can make retrofitting battery storage to existing solar parks an attractive option, according to ESS News.

Australia registered 311.8 MW of small-scale solar capacity in September 2026, according to pv magazine. That marked a 7.29% increase on the 290 MW installed during the previous month.

The gain in rooftop installations came on the back of a battery rebate scheme, according to pv magazine.

The small-scale solar segment covers systems from 0 to 100 kW.