June 10, 2021: Umicore, the international materials and recycling group that also recycles lithium batteries, said Mathias Miedreich would take over from Marc Grynberg as CEO of the group in the last quarter of 2021. Miedreich has a lot of experience in the automotive sector, much of it in clean mobility. He moves to Umicore…

June 10, 2021: The first solar panel in what will be the UK’s first utility-scale wind, solar and battery facility was installed on June 9 by UK prime minister Boris Johnson, never one to shirk at a media opportunity. The Carland Cross site in Cornwall is owned by ScottishPower, and happens to be in the…

June 10, 2021: The boom in battery demand from electric vehicles and stationary storage applications has caused a surge in battery metals prices and with them, a need for metals traders, Reuters reported on June 2. Proco Commodities, a recruitment firm, recorded 50% more metal trading moves in the first five months of 2021 compared…

June 10, 2021: Philippine power company SMC (San Miguel Corporation) has signed agreements with major energy storage firms to provide up to 1GW of storage for the archipelago, including 470MW from Fluence and 220MW from ABB, the firms have just announced. Fluence on June 9 said it had completed the commissioning of two 20MW/20MWh battery…

June 10, 2021: The US has set another record for energy storage deployments, this time in Q1, bringing 910MWh online in 2021, says Wood Mackenzie in a report out on June 8. Last year’s first quarter total was beaten by 252%, and this is just the start of it — WoodMac forecasts that 2021 will…

June 10, 2021: US president Joe Biden has given a massive boost to the US battery industry, on June 8 recommending that critical spending is carried out to expand the US’ capability of producing its own batteries for EVs and stationary storage. The administration made the decision at the end of a 100-day review, begun…

June 10, 2021: Canadian lithium battery recycler Li-Cycle on June 8 said it had formed a partnership with the battery management company Renewance, which is based in Illinois, US. The two firms have been working together since the start of 2020, and based on that experience have decided to formalize the arrangement. Li-Cycle offers a…

May 27, 2021: Thermal energy storage company Malta and Duke Energy, the North Carolinian utility, announced on May 19 they would work together to study the feasibility of converting decommissioned coal plants into long-duration energy storage systems by integrating pumped heat into existing infrastructure. The US Department of Energy is funding a year-long study into…

May 27, 2021: ESB in Ireland has signed a memorandum of understanding with energy storage developer dCarbonX to assess and develop offshore hydrogen storage, the firms announced on May 26. The storage will be in subsurface storage caverns off the coast of Ireland in what the partnership says will become a ‘green hydrogen valley’ centred…

May 27, 2021: Scottish power generator firm Gravitricity said on May 19 that it was planning to incorporate hydrogen and heat into its underground energy system. The Edinburgh-based firm signed an agreement to build a 250kW demo at Port Leith, in Scotland, in May last year. This involves using excess electricity from the grid to…