Base Power raises another $1B to save the grid using backyard batteries

Base Power’s $1 billion round will help the startup ramp production of its home batteries.

CATL’s 30-year sodium-ion battery takes over grid storage
CATL’s 30-year sodium-ion battery takes over grid storage

CATL has signed a memorandum of understanding with Dutch energy company Alfen to deploy 5 GWh of its Tener Sodium energy storage systems across Europe, one of the largest sodium-ion commitments the region has seen.
The batteries are rated for 15,000 cy…

Google’s biggest clean power project is 40 miles north of xAI’s unpermitted gas power plant

Google’s biggest solar and battery project stands in sharp contrast with xAI’s nearby unpermitted power plant.

A new sodium battery posts wild four-minute charging numbers, but don’t expect it in an EV yet

A sodium-metal battery reached a four-minute laboratory rate, but its strongest lifespan figures came from slower and smaller tests. The pouch-cell results show why EV use remains a long way off.

BYD wins 11.3 GWh battery deal for world’s largest solar+storage
BYD wins 11.3 GWh battery deal for world’s largest solar+storage

BYD Energy Storage has landed a contract to supply 11.275 GWh of battery storage for Masdar’s Round the Clock (RTC) project in Abu Dhabi — one of the single largest energy storage procurements ever signed.
The RTC project pairs a 5.2 GW solar array wit…

China’s giant Gobi solar plant runs after dark on salt, not batteries
China’s giant Gobi solar plant runs after dark on salt, not batteries

China Three Gorges Corporation (CTG) has put the world’s largest solar PV-plus-concentrated-solar hybrid into commercial trial operation in the Gobi Desert — and its headline trick is delivering power after sunset without a single lithium battery.
The …

Even Honda is pivoting to data centers

Honda wants in on the lucrative energy storage market. This week it began producing batteries destined for data centers, not driveways.

a16z-backed Base Power is offering cheaper electricity to the power grid that needs it most

Base Power is skipping the PJM’s troubled interconnection queue by placing its batteries at people’s homes, offering backup services in exchange.

Tesla, NatPower strike $5B deal for 25 GWh of Megapack storage
Tesla, NatPower strike $5B deal for 25 GWh of Megapack storage

Tesla and independent energy firm NatPower have reached a deal to build 25 gigawatt-hours of battery storage in Italy and Britain, the first phase of a program worth up to $5 billion.
Under the multiyear agreement, NatPower will deploy Tesla’s Megapack…

Ex-Tesla exec builds the home heat pump Tesla gave up for robots
Ex-Tesla exec builds the home heat pump Tesla gave up for robots

Drew Baglino spent nearly two decades building Tesla’s batteries, motors, and power electronics. Now the former Tesla SVP is quietly building the one home energy product Tesla talked up for years and never shipped: a residential heat pump.
His startup,…