Monday, 12 October 2026

Unreliable electricity and intermittent LPG supplies in Malawi's urban centres are forcing some families to return to charcoal for cooking, according to EnviroNews.

A study found that 82.8% of households surveyed across Blantyre, Lilongwe, Mzuzu and Zomba continued to use biomass, primarily charcoal, according to Mwnation.

Julius Ngoma, National Coordinator of the Civil Society Network on Climate Change, warned that the combined power and gas shortages will accelerate deforestation, Mwnation reported.

Automotive Cells Company (ACC) has produced its five-millionth battery cell at its factory in France, according to electrive. The battery joint venture links Stellantis, Mercedes, and TotalEnergies.

At the Paris Motor Show, ACC said its current cell output at the Douvrin site is enough to equip nearly 40,000 vehicles with its own battery cells, electrive reported.

The five-millionth cell marks production at the French plant, electrive said.

Energy Dome has opened a manufacturing plant in Piacenza, Italy, to expand production of its CO2 Battery technology for international projects, according to pv magazine.

The facility will manufacture key components, including the large domes used in the company's carbon dioxide-based energy storage systems, pv magazine reported.

The plant will supply components for long-duration energy storage projects in India, the United States and Ireland, according to pv magazine.

Energy Dome said it shipped its first entirely in-house manufactured dome to India for the 20 MW/160 MWh Kudgi project with NTPC, pv magazine reported.

Helleniq Renewables has completed a 100 MW / 200 MWh battery energy storage system at Helleniq Energy's industrial facilities in Thessaloniki, northern Greece, according to ESS News. Helleniq Renewables is a subsidiary of Greek oil company Helleniq Energy.

The installation is Helleniq Energy's first operational battery storage system and ranks among the largest in Greece, ESS News reported. The system is connected to Greece's national transmission network.

NTPC Green Energy has opened bidding for a battery energy storage system (BESS) rated at 3.3 GWh at Khavda in Gujarat, ESS News reported.

Rated at 3,300 MWh, the installation sits at the NTPC REL Khavda solar plant and splits across four blocks, each positioned at the site's PSS-1, according to ESS News.

Bidders must design the batteries and the wider BESS to last 25 years from commissioning, with capacity degradation handled through the bidder's own proposal under a daily single-cycle operating regime, per ESS News.

Two battery energy storage projects in Queensland and New South Wales have moved toward construction by signing battery suppliers and an EPC provider, according to RenewEconomy.

For the Teebar BESS in central Queensland, Atmos Renewables selected Enerven to deliver balance-of-plant works and locked in Valo as the battery supplier, RenewEconomy reported.

OX2 chose e-Storage, a subsidiary of Canadian Solar, as the supplier for the Muswellbrook Solar Farm and Battery in New South Wales, according to RenewEconomy.

Emergency power cuts were introduced in Kyiv and the Kyiv region on the morning of October 11, DTEK said. The company said the cuts were imposed on Ukrenergo's instruction.

Ukrenergo said emergency outages were introduced in several Ukrainian regions because Russian shelling had caused a difficult situation in the power system.

The previously published hourly outage schedules were not in effect during the emergency outages.