Software for modelling technical and economic performance, seismic activity certification for flow batteries and underwriting for BESS projects, in this edition of news in brief from around the world in energy storage.

The Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA) is funding trial deployments of two different non-lithium battery technologies at microgrids in Western Australia.

The US Department of Energy (DOE) will allocate over US$366 million for 17 clean energy projects in rural and remote areas in the US. 

San Diego Gas & Electric (SDG&E), one of California’s main investor-owned utilities (IOUs), has brought online a portfolio of four ‘advanced’ microgrids equipped with 180MWh of battery storage.

A 20MWh vanadium redox flow battery (VRFB) project is being developed for construction at the site of an existing natural gas peaker plant in California, by South Korea’s H2 Inc.

The Ministry of Energy in Lithuania has officially launched a project to deploy 200MW / 200MWh of battery storage in the northern European country. 

A tiny, coral reef-surrounded island in southern Japan will be able to use renewable energy as its main source of power, thanks to a microgrid with battery storage technology at its heart. 

Wärtsilä has given details of the energy storage system it will supply to utility company Bahamas Power & Light (BPL).

Two 100MW battery energy storage system (BESS) projects in Texas have been brought online by independent power producer (IPP) Broad Reach Power, for participation in the Electricity Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) market. 

Western Australia’s state-owned electricity network operator is tendering for a “disconnected microgrid” project which could be replicated if successful, to cost-effectively give rural communities reliable and safe power supplies.