Energy Digest

FranklinWH Energy Storage, a US-based company, is manufacturing its residential battery products in California, highlighting the brand's commitment to local production and control over energy usage. The company's products provide households with more control of their energy consumption through its suite of energy storage systems. FranklinWH aims to empower homeowners as environmental stewards by offering real-time energy management solutions.

Bluetti has launched the EnergyPro 13K, a next-generation whole-home battery backup system in the US, replacing its existing EP900 product. The new system offers boosts to output power and storage options, with a modular design that allows for scalable storage as needed. Bluetti's latest launch targets residential and small business users, building on its earlier EnergyPro 6K product launched in 2025.

Solar power paired with battery storage could supply 90% of India's electricity demand at an LCOE of INR 5.06/kWh, requiring around 930 GW of solar capacity and 2,560 GWh of battery storage. This is within the country's estimated feasible ground-mounted solar potential, and would only require curtailing 5% of annual solar generation. Meeting 90% of India's electricity demand with solar-plus-storage would be economically viable at a significantly lower cost than achieving 100% solar power.

A Japanese-Chinese team developed a titanium molten salt redox-flow battery with high efficiency of over 97%, strong cycling stability, and improved cost and scalability compared to vanadium-based batteries. Titanium is used as the redox-active material, addressing supply and cost limitations, and offers a wide electrochemical stability window and high ionic conductivity. The system demonstrates fast charge-discharge rates and stable operation at high temperatures, with further optimization underway.

Spark Renewables has secured final state planning approval for a 800 MW solar and 356 MW/1,574 MWh battery project in New South Wales, Australia, which will deliver large-scale dispatchable renewable power to the grid. The AUD 1.35 billion project aims to improve grid stability and energy security while reducing reliance on fossil fuel-based generation. It is expected to create a significant contribution to Australia's renewable energy transition efforts.

Xcel Energy is building a first-of-its-kind virtual power plant in Minnesota, consisting of hundreds of megawatts of small-scale batteries deployed at customer sites across the territory, aiming to become the nation's first utility to do so.

The federal permitting process for clean energy projects is delaying, downsizing, and deterring them, with 80% of developers citing this as a reason to limit their exposure. Federal permitting issues contribute to delays averaging six months across 11 GW of impacted capacity, while project costs increase by an average of 6-10%. Developers primarily seek predictability and certainty in the permitting process over speed or simplicity.

The Grid Acceleration Coalition of transmission owners has asked FERC to suspend competitive bidding in MISO and SPP to speed up the development of new grid infrastructure to accommodate AI data centers. The coalition claims that current competitive processes impose unjust delays, comparable to broken permitting, at a time when the US faces an energy emergency. They are seeking either a five-year moratorium or exemption from solicitation processes for transmission projects connecting new generation or load.

Constellation Energy is seeking waivers from FERC for parts of PJM's Open Access Transmission Tariff due to concerns over its restart of the Three Mile Island nuclear plant. The plant, renamed Crane Clean Energy Center, may face significant transmission project delays until at least 2027, forcing Constellation to request waivers to facilitate its restart. This could potentially constrain the restart for years.

The California Senate Committee on Energy, Utilities and Commerce has voted to approve the Clean Local Power Act (SB 913), which would enable virtual power plants (VPPs) to compete in statewide reliability markets. The bill would provide compensation for solar-charged batteries, electric vehicle chargers, heat pumps, and other technologies that can supply electricity during periods of high demand. The move aims to increase the use of decentralized energy sources and reduce reliance on traditional grid-based power generation.