Utility Scale Storage

Chile’s economic development agency Corfo has selected three companies – two Chinese and one Spanish – to build electrolyzer production facilities in the country. The projects, set to begin operations by mid-2026, will assemble alkaline and proton exchange membrane (PEM) electrolyzers ranging from 50 kW to 5 MW.

The innovative project located in a suburban district in the south of Shanghai will integrate five different energy storage technologies, including sodium-ion batteries. Its first phase will have a cumulative capacity of 40 MW/160 MWh.

German researchers have found that the majority of subsidies required to reach the country’s renewable energy targets have already been paid, with an estimated 80% to 90% of subsidies for units in operation covered. The costs of newer renewable energy sources have decreased and are often competitive with remunerations from the wholesale market.

Greece’s latest auction has awarded subsidies to 188.9 MW of standalone, front-of-the-meter, utility-scale battery energy storage. The auction was the third and final edition of a battery storage subsidy program launched in 2023, with the country now turning its focus towards a new 4.7 GW unsibsidized BESS scheme.

Somalia has changed the deadline for a tender seeking a developer for a 55 MW solar plant with a 160 MWh battery energy storage system (BESS) at the Jazeera power plant in Mogadishu. The new deadline is May 5.

The procurement exercise has attracted 67 battery energy storage companies but only six have emerged as winners. The average bid stood at CNY 0.473/Wh ($65/kWh).

Chinese inverter and energy storage maker Sungrow invited 300 guests from 20 European countries to its ESS [energy storage system] Experience Day event in Munich, Germany. Discussions focused on energy storage, projects, market figures, and the energy transition. The conclusion: More storage and grid expansion are needed.

HyIron says it has produced the first green hydrogen molecules at its Namibian facility, while Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners (CIP) has secured AUD 814 million ($512 million) for its Murchison Green Hydrogen project in Western Australia.

Researchers at the University of Waterloo in Canada investigated hydrogen as a potential decarbonization strategy for remote communities in Canada and Malaysia. They reviewed the two countries’ respective situations before presenting a value proposition for continued work – both separately and collaboratively.

Researchers in Portugal have simulated 800 power purchase agreemeents across eight different contract type and have found that contracts with a variable price structure achieve higher performance. Their analysis considered net present value, contract performance deviation and volume residual as the main indicators.