Navigating the Complex Landscape of Energy Storage Permitting

The Siting Solutions Project released its new Siting Policy Field Guide, offering state leaders and advocates a practical framework for designing renewable energy siting reforms that balance stakeholder needs while advancing clean energy deployment and ensuring benefits to host communities. Drawing on recent state reforms across the country, it brings real-world examples to life through examples and includes strategies for effective policymaking and implementation.

The Field Guide is the latest product of the Siting Solutions Project, which brings together the research, partnerships and policy expertise needed to help states modernize their siting laws. By analyzing what works, connecting key stakeholders and offering expert guidance, the project helps states adopt reforms that speed up clean energy development. The Siting Solutions Project is an initiative of Clean Tomorrow, a nonpartisan, outcome-driven organization advancing practical solutions to decarbonize the future.

“States don’t need to start from scratch – successful models already exist,” said Nelson Falkenburg, co-author and Siting Policy Manager at the Siting Solutions Project. “This Field Guide shows how states can adopt clear, fair and predictable siting rules that unlock clean energy growth while strengthening community trust.”

The United States faces a critical challenge: deploying renewable energy at the pace and scale necessary to meet rising electricity demand and counter soaring power costs. Recent polling shows energy bill increases are now a top source of financial stress for households nationwide, cutting across regions and political affiliations.

Renewable energy siting has emerged as both the greatest barrier – and opportunity – for meeting America’s clean energy goals. The Siting Policy Field Guide calls for a clear-eyed review of outdated and fragmented state siting processes. It synthesizes internal analysis, external research and collaborations with partners including Data for Progress and Strategic Economic Research. Rather than prescribing a one-size-fits-all solution, this field guide outlines four adaptable policy models that states can tailor to their own needs.

“Siting is the bottleneck holding back America’s clean energy potential,” saidAlex Breckel, co-author and Senior Director of Programs at the Siting Solutions Project. “With the right policies in place, states can cut energy costs for consumers, attract investment and deliver real benefits for workers, landowners and host communities.”

The Siting Policy Field Guide identifies six principles for effective siting policies including:

• Clear Rules: Create predictable, transparent permitting processes with consistent standards.
• Timely Decisions: Establish enforceable timelines that provide certainty for all stakeholders.
• Fair Process: Base decisions on objective criteria rather than political pressure.
• Economic Opportunity: Protect the rights of landowners, workers and communities to benefit from clean energy development.
• Community Benefits: Ensure meaningful local input and tangible benefits for host communities.
• Land Stewardship: Plan for and manage impacts on agricultural lands, wildlife and habitat.

The Field Guide underscores that policy design is not enough – lasting success requires careful implementation, durable coalitions and clear metrics to measure progress. The technology is ready, the economics are strong and effective policy models are already proven. By learning from successful state examples, applying proven design principles, and maintaining focus on effective implementation, state policymakers can create the frameworks needed to unlock America's renewable energy potential and meet the nation's urgent energy needs.

Read the full Siting Policy Field Guide here.

Siting Solutions Project | https://sitingsolutions.com/

Southwire is proud to announce that four of its manufacturing facilities have been awarded The Copper Mark for responsible production.

The Copper Rod Plant and Building Wire Plant in Carrollton, GA; the Douglas Plant in Douglas, GA; and the Starkville Plant in Starkville, MS all received The Copper Mark award.  

The Copper Mark is the leading assurance framework promoting responsible practices across the copper value chain. To achieve these awards, each site underwent a rigorous independent assessment covering climate action, community health and safety, business integrity, responsible supply chains and inclusive employee experience. 

“Our team’s commitment to doing things the right way – not just the easy way – has turned sustainability into a true competitive strength for Southwire,” said Veronica Braker, EVP, Operations at Southwire. “This honor is a reflection of our team’s leadership, discipline and the belief that progress and responsibility go hand in hand.” 

These newly awarded sites join three Southwire facilities (Bremen, IN; Lafayette, IN; and Denton, TX) that were previously awarded The Copper Mark in 2023.  

“Achieving The Copper Mark is an external recognition of our commitment to being an Extraordinary Place to Work and a leader in sustainable practices for generations to come,” said Burt Fealing, EVP, General Counsel and Chief Sustainability Officer at Southwire. 

“At the Copper Mark, we understand the importance of fabricators in the copper value chain. The wire and cable produced at midstream sites is critical for energy grids and key components for downstream manufacturing,” said Michèle Brülhart, Executive Director at the Copper Mark. “It’s heartening to see sites like Southwire’s successfully using our standards and assurance for responsible production.”  

Southwire remains committed to advancing sustainability and responsible production across its operations, reinforcing its role as an industry leader in environmental stewardship and ethical manufacturing. 

Southwire | www.southwire.com

The Copper Mark | www.coppermark.org

OutBack Power, a leader in off-grid and hybrid solar energy solutions, announced a strategic Supply Agreement with Near Prime Technologies (NPT), the U.S. manufacturing partner of C4V, a New York-based technology company that has successfully deployed its defense-qualified lithium-ion battery technology across multiple U.S. and allied naval programs.

Near Prime’s U.S.-made battery cells are listed to UL 1973 and UL 1642, and the system architecture has completed UL 9540A thermal‑runaway fire propagation testing.

The partnership will enable OutBack Power to offer a secure domestic supply and production of advanced, certified battery systems for residential and commercial energy storage, leveraging C4V’s BMLMP (BioMineralized Lithium Mixed Metals Phosphate) chemistry and Near Prime’s state-of-the-art production facility in New York. The systems reflect completed UL 9540A testing and UL 1973/UL 1642 listings.

The agreement focuses on OutBack Power led design, manufacture, and supply of advanced battery systems for the residential market. Under the contract, OutBack will integrate C4V’s proven BMLMP cell technology, manufactured in the United States by Near Prime, into OutBack’s next-generation storage products. Assembly and commercialization of the final systems will be driven by OutBack Power as a fully domestic residential energy storage solution.

“By partnering with Near Prime and C4V, we are aligning with a U.S.-based, defense-certified supply chain that ensures the long-term reliability, safety, and domestic energy independence our customers demand. This is another major milestone in OutBack’s transformation,” said Randy Taylor, General Manager of OutBack Power.

Under the contract, OutBack Power has committed to purchasing 2GWh of battery cells over the next 5 years. The agreement also includes options for annual renewals and volume expansion through 2030.

“This is about building resilience and trust,” said James Showalter, CEO of Energy Access Innovations (EAI), OutBack’s parent company. “We’re reshoring production, investing in long-term partnerships, and delivering on our promise of reliable, accessible energy for all. This is the same technology that has passed the U.S. Department of Defense qualification and are deployed in autonomous naval systems. We’re reshoring production, investing in long-term partnerships, and delivering defense-grade reliability to residential energy users.”

“This partnership with OutBack Power represents a natural extension of our mission to bring world-class, U.S.-made battery technology to every sector of the energy market,” said Shailesh Upreti, CEO of C4V and Near Prime Technologies. “Our cells have already proven themselves in some of the most demanding defense and maritime environments. Bringing that same level of reliability and safety to the residential market reinforces America’s retaking leadership in advanced energy manufacturing.”

The collaboration also includes joint development of a custom Battery Management System (BMS) tailored to OutBack’s 28S1P, 103.5V, 40A architecture, optimized for C4V’s 53Ah, 3.7V U.S.-made cells. The system will meet both UL and DoD safety and performance standards, ensuring a consistent platform for residential, commercial, and defense-derived energy applications.

This partnership unites OutBack Power’s leadership in reliable distributed energy with C4V’s proven battery technology and Near Prime Technologies’ domestic manufacturing capability—establishing a U.S.-made, fully certified, defense-qualified energy-storage platform ready for residential and commercial deployment.

OutBack Power | https://outbackpower.com/

Near Prime Technologies | https://www.nearprime.us/

esVolta, LP ("esVolta") announced the completion of an investment tax credit (“ITC”) transfer from its Black Walnut energy storage project to Computacenter Holdings. This marks the first standalone ITC transfer by esVolta. Recently commissioned in October 2025, the Black Walnut project is now providing 15 MW / 60 MWh of capacity to the California Independent System Operator grid. This milestone will strengthen California’s clean energy infrastructure, supporting a more diverse and more resilient power system.

In this transaction, Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe LLP represented esVolta and Buchanan Ingersoll & Rooney PC represented Computacenter Holdings.

“This highlights our commitment to access and leverage clean energy investment structures among a diverse range of financing solutions,” said Randolph Mann, Chief Executive Officer of esVolta. "We will continue to drive the battery energy storage industry in key markets with innovative financing strategies.”

“We are pleased to collaborate with esVolta on the Black Walnut Project,” said Wendy Coticchia, SVP – Compliance, Americas & APAC, and Sustainability Champion of Computacenter. “Investments like this strengthen the foundation for renewable energy adoption and help build a more sustainable future.”

The Black Walnut project joins esVolta’s growing energy storage portfolio in California. Across the country, as more battery energy storage solutions come online, these projects are transforming how clean energy is delivered and consumed, creating a more sustainable energy ecosystem.

esVolta | www.esvolta.com

Exus Renewables, a global Energy Solutions Provider, has been appointed by Sungrow, a leading energy storage system (ESS) technology company, to manage its stand-alone 5MW battery energy storage system (BESS) located in Galicia.

The appointment positions Exus among the first non-utility operators entrusted with managing a fully operational BESS facility in Spain. The site, located in Sanxenxo, is one of the country’s first stand-alone battery storage installations and is expected to support the growing role of storage in Spain’s electricity system. 

The facility features four battery containers connected to a local substation and has a total capacity of 20 MWh, enabling it to meet the equivalent daily electricity consumption of more than 2,200 homes. It will reinforce power system stability as Spain enters a phase where battery storage is becoming increasingly important for supporting flexibility, reducing curtailment, balancing supply, and strengthening grid performance alongside growing renewable generation.

With around 38 MW of BESS capacity currently installed nationwide, this project has secured state-level backing through funding from Spain’s Institute for Energy Diversification and Energy Saving (IDAE), underscoring the country’s determination to accelerate the energy transition and meet the 2030 targets laid out in the National Energy and Climate Plan (NECP). 

“We truly appreciate Sungrow’s trust in us to manage their Sanxenxo BESS site,” said Alfonso Cebrián, Managing Director of Third-Party Energy Services at Exus Renewables. “This project is strategically important for our Third-Party Energy Services business and demonstrates how our expertise can create value across the entire energy generation value chain”.

For his part, Daniel Sánchez CEO of Sungrow Renewables Western Europe,  stated: “Sungrow is pleased to appoint Exus Renewables as the asset manager for our 5MW stand-alone BESS in Sanxenxo. This facility is a strategic asset for our business in Spain, and we needed a partner with proven operational excellence and deep market expertise. We look forward to working closely with Exus to ensure the site delivers reliable flexibility and grid support as storage plays an increasingly important role in Spain’s power system.”

Over the past year, Exus has continued to expand its storage activity across Europe. In addition to third-party asset management, the company is progressing its own battery projects in development in Italy, Poland and recently advancing in Spain, while actively growing its storage platform through strategic partnerships, acquisitions and the continued expansion of its third-party services.

Exus Renewables | www.exusrenewables.com  

PowerBank Corporation (NASDAQ: SUUN) (Cboe CA: SUNN) (FSE: 103) ("PowerBank" or the "Company") announces that the 1.45 MW DC rooftop solar project located in Calgary, Alberta (the "Project") for Fiera Real Estate Investments Limited ("Fiera Real Estate") has achieved commercial operation.

The Project will sell power to the grid under Alberta's Small Scale Generation program and participate in Alberta's Technology Innovation and Emissions Reduction (TIER) system to generate carbon offsets.

Contributing to Fiera Real Estate's commitment to its Net Zero Pathway, where two of its funds have established targets of net zero carbon by 2040, as well as further expanding the PowerBank portfolio, this project is PowerBank's first operational project in Alberta and marks its debut as a small-scale generator within the Alberta Interconnected Electric System (AIES) in 2025. With the support of Zathura Investments, PowerBank is providing full-service development and engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) services for the Project under an EPC agreement with Fiera Real Estate.

PowerBank Corporation | https://powerbankcorp.com/

LF Energy, the open source foundation accelerating the energy transition, celebrates significant growth in 2025, including new members, new projects, and record-setting event attendance. These additions to the LF Energy community strengthen the foundation’s mission to build a reliable network of digital assets that deliver affordable, sustainable, and clean energy. New members include the Centre for Net Zero, the Institute of Communication and Computer Systems (ICCS) and Junia as associate members and Andy Chu of Apple, Laurent Boinot of Microsoft, and Naresh Kumar Gajendran of Shell as governing board members. 

“With an influx of new members from the utility, vendor, research, and academic communities,  impactful new technology and standards projects, and growing attendance at our summits, 2025 has been LF Energy’s best year yet,” said Alex Thornton, executive director of LF Energy. “As we look forward to 2026, the staff and governing board are planning a series of new investments and strategies to significantly accelerate the innovation needed for the energy transition. I’m excited about our community’s growth and prosperity in the year ahead.”

New Projects and Key Updates

Over the past year, LF Energy continued advancing the collaborative power of open source software for the digital energy transition, expanding its roster of key projects and fortifying existing initiatives across the energy ecosystem. Key achievements include:

• The creation of the LF Energy Semantic Energy Framework (SEF) – a framework to address closed platforms, incompatible protocols and vendor lock-in within global energy sustainability goals. This framework offers an ontology-agnostic, domain-neutral design to enable semantic data representation, discovery and reasoning across diverse systems.
• The release of RTC-Tools as a new solution for optimization of water and energy systems – a well-established and widely used project, this open source Python package empowers organizations to efficiently manage and optimize their assets, contributing to the efficient management of important resources.
• The establishment of p-SWAMP as a research and development environment for Wide Area Monitoring, Protection and Control (WAMPACS) – based on a previous Nordic project, the Nordic Early Warning Early Prevention System (NEWEPS), p-SWAMP (Power Stability Wide Area Monitoring Protection) is a facilitator for efficient development of new functionality in WAMPACS, benefitting the power transmission grid overall. 
• PowSyBl (Power System Blocks) transitioning to LF Europe – the open source library for power system modeling, visualization, and simulation is moving to LF Europe, while continuing its partnership with LF Energy. PowSyBl’s move marks its next phase of growth as a strategic lever for Europe’s digital sovereignty. 
• The release of SEAPATH version 1.2 – the new version provides easier installation, enhanced networking and storage capabilities, and a fully redesigned Wiki to accelerate adoption of open source virtualization for digital substations.
• The release of FlexMeasures version 0.30 – this latest version improves FlexMeasures’ energy forecasting capabilities with support for fixed-viewpoint forecasting, allowing for better real-life analytics and multiple forecasts simultaneously 
• The release of OperatorFabric 4.10.0 – designed to improve interoperability and situational awareness across energy systems, this open source platform includes process monitoring improvements, custom screen enhancements, smarter email management, and more.
• The release of CoMPAS 0.25.0 – to better support substation configuration and interoperability within digital grid environments, CoMPAS 0.25.0 enhances version consistency, container deployment stability and compatibility with the evolving Open SCD toolchain in the latest release.
• EcoPhi’s success with SEAPATH for substation monitoring – EcoPhi, a spinout from Chalmers University of Technology in Sweden, set out to modernize over 200 substation deployments worldwide with software-defined automation. EcoPhi used the LF Energy’s SEAPATH to virtualize key substation monitoring and analytics functions including phasor measurement (PMU), power quality (PQM), disturbance recording (DFR), and partial discharge (PD) on a unified, real-time platform.
• Sigholm use of OpenSTEF for forecasting – Sigholm, a Nordic energy technology, implemented LF Energy’s OpenSTEF as the forecasting engine behind Aurora by Sigholm. A case study released this week by LF Energy showcases how OpenSTEF supports large scale forecasting for thermal energy production and enhances operational decision making across the Nordic region.

A Growing Community at LF Energy Events 

In addition to project success, LF Energy set new records for its events, underscoring community interest in sustainable, clean energy technology. These include:

• A full audience at LF Energy Summit Europe in Germany – LF Energy saw a nearly 50% increase in attendance from 2024, attracting a vibrant crowd of professionals across electric utilities, technology vendors, policy makers, global energy companies, researchers, and more. 
• Global participation at the inaugural LF Energy Summit North America in Varennes, Quebec – this one-day summit offered a variety of technical sessions, project deep-dives, and community discussions to attending utility professionals, researchers, and technology developers. 
• A successful first Enlit Europe event in Bilbao, Spain – this event brought together members, contributors, and new community participants, showcasing industry enthusiasm for open source collaboration and practical digital grid modernization.
• Dynamic conversations at first-ever LF Energy Seminar in Japan – this event took place at the Lumada Innovation Hub Tokyo, bringing together professionals, engineers, researchers, and more from the energy sector for a day of learning and insights.

“Formalising our relationship with LF Energy marks an exciting milestone for Centre for Net Zero as we build on the collaboration we began in 2024. Together, we look forward to advancing the OpenSynth community as the go-to place for AI-generated and AI-ready grid data, driving open, scalable innovation that helps push fossil fuels out of the energy system.”

              – Gareth Jones, Chief Operating Officer, Centre for Net Zero

"By joining LF Energy, Junia aims to bridge the gap between research and real-world applications, share our developments openly, and improve the quality of our contributions through community collaboration. This strategic step will make our innovations accessible, tested, and impactful for all stakeholders, accelerating the energy transition by transforming research into practical solutions."

              – Khaled Almaksour, Responsible for Electric Power Management Platform, Junia

LF Energy | https://www.lfenergy.org

The Linux Foundation | linuxfoundation.org