Peak Energy to Build First U.S. Grid-Scale Sodium-Ion Energy Storage System Factory

Recently, the EPC general contracting for the 100MW/200MWh standalone ESS power station project in Xigang Town, Tengzhou City, Shandong Province, issued a termination notice, just one day after the tender announcement was released. The reason for termination was "significant changes." Also in July, the EPC for the 200MW/800MWh standalone ESS project in Usu City, Xinjiang, once again issued a tender termination notice, citing "significant adjustments to the construction content." This was already the third termination of the project's tender process. Looking back at the tender history of the Usu project, its first tender was in November 2025, with a budget of 730 million yuan, equating to a unit price of 0.91 Yuan/Wh. It was later terminated due to significant changes in the technical specifications. After resumption, the budget was raised to approximately 807 million yuan, with the unit price rising to 1.01 Yuan/Wh. In January 2026, the project announced the winning bid result, with PowerChina Jiangxi Electric Power winning the bid at a unit price of 0.94 Yuan/Wh.

Observ’ER’s annual report shows that France’s small-scale solar market slowed sharply in 2025 after eight consecutive years of growth. Sales volumes for systems below 3kW fell 45.4% YoY to 153.25MW, while the 3kW to 9kW segment dropped 17.6% from 685MW to 564.1MW. Observ’ER attributed the decline mainly to regulatory changes introduced in 2025. Since March, 0-9kW systems have no longer been allowed to sell their full output to EDF OA and can only sell surplus electricity, while the surplus feed-in tariff fell from EUR 0.12/kWh to EUR 0.01/kWh. Self-consumption incentives were also reduced. SMM believes the rapid shift toward self-consumption has weakened short-term project economics for France’s residential PV market, making storage and higher self-consumption rates increasingly important for future demand recovery.

Lebanon’s Electricity Regulatory Authority has launched a tender for up to five grid-connected solar projects with a combined installed capacity of 350MW and 1GWh of battery energy storage. The location and exact capacity of each project have yet to be announced. Selected developers will be responsible for land acquisition or leasing, permitting, design, financing, construction, interconnection, testing, commissioning, and long-term operation and maintenance. The projects are expected to follow an independent power producer model, with expressions of interest due by Aug. 31. IRENA data show Lebanon’s cumulative solar capacity reached 1.505GW by the end of 2025, up from 1.081GW in 2024.