Storage
BloombergNEF reported on Friday that the executive order signed by U.S. President Trump last week restricting foreign-made grid equipment may pose more significant near-term risks to the U.S. battery energy storage industry than to other sectors. The executive order, effective from August 26, will affect numerous grid-scale battery projects, and developers may face delays, redesigns, or cancellations.
U.S. President Trump signed an executive order on Wednesday declaring a national emergency to protect the U.S. bulk power system, aiming to prevent utility companies from connecting certain foreign-made equipment, including transformers, batteries, inverters, and related software and digital products, to the power grid. The order also considers replacing installed equipment and authorizes the Secretary of Energy to impose conditions on the use, operation, maintenance, servicing, or updating of foreign-made or operated grid equipment purchased or installed before the order takes effect. The White House stated that this targets foreign transactions posing risks of disruption, unauthorized access, or other interruptions, and does not involve distribution-level equipment. The Department of Energy must develop implementation rules within 120 days.
The New Jersey Board of Public Utilities (BPU) proposed a procurement on August 17 targeting up to 150 megawatts of behind-the-meter storage capacity. Eligible customers of Atlantic City Electric, Jersey Central Power & Light, Public Service Electric & Gas, and Rockland Electric can receive compensation of up to $200 per kilowatt per year over a 10-year period for dispatching small battery storage during grid stress. This procurement is the first capacity block of the second phase of the 'Garden State Energy Storage Program,' aimed at helping the state deploy 2 gigawatts of storage capacity by 2030.
Chicago utility Exelon said Thursday that its 'high-probability' data center load fell to about 11 gigawatts in the second quarter from 18 gigawatts at the end of last year, a decline of nearly 40%. The company is screening projects through transmission security agreements (TSAs) while advancing energy storage and efficiency projects to address capacity challenges in the PJM market.
Lincoln Electric System (LES) is installing a 3MW/12MWh zinc-based battery energy storage system in its 30MW microgrid located in Lincoln, the capital of Nebraska. The system is expected to enter commercial operation within the next few weeks, increasing the microgrid's capacity by approximately 10%.
A new study from the University of California, Berkeley shows that by 2035, off-grid systems combining renewable energy, industrial heat pumps, and thermal energy storage could economically meet one-third of U.S. industrial heat demand. The study analyzed over 3,000 industrial sites and found that some regions are already cost-competitive, but face challenges such as reliability, investment, and space.
Salt River Project (SRP) said on Tuesday that it plans to seek board approval in September for the development of the Marigold Energy Center, located about 45 miles south of Phoenix, encompassing 400 MW of battery energy storage, 600 MW of solar power, and up to 675 MW of natural gas generation, aimed at serving the growing electricity demand in Maricopa and Pinal counties in Arizona.
Google announced on Tuesday an agreement with Cypress Creek Energy to participate as an anchor investor and offtaker in the Steel River Energy Center project. This project, the largest solar facility in the U.S., is located in Arkansas with a total scale of 2.5GW/2.9GWh, developed in three phases, with the first two phases bringing 1.6GW of solar and 1.9GWh of storage. Google also signed power purchase agreements for the first two phases and committed $5 million to local energy affordability programs.
On July 8, ESS Tech announced the launch of a modular sodium-ion battery energy storage system called ESS Bridge, with a single module capacity of 1.2 MWh, stackable to 4.8 MWh in a traditional 20-foot battery container, comparable to the capacity of the latest Tesla Megapack iteration. The company stated that since announcing the procurement of 8.5 GWh of sodium-ion battery cells and modules from Alsym Energy at the end of April, it has attracted over $1 billion in early-stage customer opportunities.
The energy shock caused by recent events in the Middle East has revealed that the global power supply chain, after the COVID-19 pandemic and the 2022-2023 crises, has no buffer left. KEMA Labs analysis indicates that fuel shortages, rising costs of critical materials, logistics congestion, and project standstills are compounding to create systemic strain. More concerning, accelerated procurement and relaxed qualification standards are leading to a silent decline in equipment quality—many products are failing independent certification tests. In this urgent market environment, rigorous type testing and independent verification have become the last line of defense against quality risks and for maintaining grid resilience.