November 26, 2021: Plans to open a bipolar lead battery plant in northwest Bulgaria that were derailed for two years because of the coronavirus lockdowns will go ahead, battery maker Monbat said on November 9. The factory will produce bipolar batteries using the GreenSeal technology licensed to it by Advanced Battery Concepts in 2019. The…

November 25, 2021: Stryten Energy has bought the vehicle power division of Galvion, a military equipment maker whose products include lithium batteries for onboard systems typically used in combat vehicles such as tanks. In an announcement on November 15, Stryten said the deal had been struck just as the Biden administration was committing more money…

November 26, 2021: Frank Daufenbach has been appointed chief strategy officer at Belgium-based materials technology and recycling firm Umicore, effective December 6. The position is a new one, and has been made a few weeks after Mathias Miedreich was appointed CEO at the beginning of October. The company is ‘preparing Umicore’s next growth phase as…

November 26, 2021: Solar and energy firm SunPower Corp has launched a virtual power plant for its SunVault customers, it said on November 16. The lithium iron phosphate batteries are produced in 13kWh or 26kWh sizes and when they detect utility disruptions they switch automatically to the back-up storage in customers’ individual homes. “During hours…

November 26, 2021: Senior executives Rachel Ruffle and Marco Perona have been promoted to new CEO positions created by renewable energy giant RES, the firm said on November 23. Rachel Ruffle becomes CEO EMEA, “expanding her current Northern Europe CEO role to lead development and construction activities across RES’ EMEA countries”, the firm says. Marco…

November 26, 2021: Plus Power on November 9 announced it had closed a landmark credit facility for its 185MW/565MWh Kapolei Energy Storage project in Hawaii. The battery is in Kapolei, on the island of Oahu, and is the largest to have been selected by the utility Hawaiian Electric. It will provide load shifting and 50MW…

November 26, 2021: A new Long-Duration Energy Storage Council report published in November has estimated that the world needs up to 140TWh of long-duration storage by 2040 if the world’s grids are to become net-zero. Co-authored by US battery manufacturer ESS, the report says deploying long-duration systems for storing renewable power such as wind and…

November 26, 2021: Clean energy firm Intersect Power has closed eight separate transactions worth a total of $2.6 billion to finance the construction and operation of six solar-plus-storage projects in Texas and California, the firm said on November 18. Santander  Bank helped to put together the transactions, which have been agreed with firms including HPS…

November 26, 2021: Hydrostor affiliate company Pecho LD Energy Storage has applied to develop a 400MW/3,200MWh compressed air storage facility in San Luis Obispo County, California, the company announced on November 23. The facility, if granted approval by the California Energy Commission, will help to meet the region’s energy demands after the 2,200 Diablo Canyon…

November 26, 2021: Renewable energy firm Blue Ridge Power has chosen aqueous zinc battery technology by Eos Energy to store 300MWh of energy in multiple energy storage projects up to 2023, Eos announced on November 10. Eos, which is based in the US state of New Jersey, says solar engineering and construction firm Blue Ridge…