Renewable Energy

Oakland – September 08, 2026 -- Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E) has launched SHARE (Smart Home Assets for Reliability and Efficiency), a Virtual Power Plant designed to enroll nearly 21,000 existing home energy devices and deliver hundreds of deeply discounted home energy upgrades across Bay Area communities.

PG&E assembles a multi-partner coalition to deploy the VPP

The initiative brings together PG&E, Rewiring America, Google, Carrier Global Corporation, Tesla, Sunrun, Renew Home, Demand Side Analytics and encoord to coordinate a network of home batteries, smart devices and battery-enabled heat pumps that reduce energy use during peak demand periods.

PG&E is working with Tesla, Sunrun and Renew Home to enroll nearly 21,000 existing flexible energy devices into the program, with the resource expected to begin supporting the grid as early as fall 2026.

Shanghai – September 08, 2026 -- APsystems' APstorage 261L liquid-cooled commercial and industrial energy storage system has passed the UL 9540A fire propagation test under the witness of TÜV Rheinland, with thermal runaway fully contained within a single cabinet and no propagation to adjacent units.

Cabinet Withstands Test at Full Charge With Fire Suppression Disabled

The test subjected the APstorage 261L to extreme conditions, operating at 100% state of charge with its fire suppression system intentionally switched off. No short circuit, fire spread, or explosion occurred, and the cabinet retained structural integrity throughout.

Berlin – September 08, 2026 -- EcoFlow, which has deployed more than 10 million devices to 5 million users worldwide, is pushing its consumer battery and software architecture into the commercial and enterprise energy market as European grid connection queues and price volatility squeeze corporate balance sheets.

The Economist Enterprise and EcoFlow released an executive panel titled 'Flexibility by Design: Energy Resilience for Business' ahead of IFA Berlin 2026, running September 4-8 at Messe Berlin. The session gathered regulators, grid operators and digital infrastructure executives to address grid bottlenecks and unpredictable energy costs facing European industry.

Berlin – September 08, 2026 -- Data centers powering AI workloads and the rapid growth of electric vehicle fleets are pushing Europe's electricity grids toward their limits, forcing corporate boards to treat energy resilience as a strategic priority rather than a utility-side problem. Ahead of IFA Berlin 2026 (September 4-8), The Economist Enterprise and EcoFlow released a recorded panel discussion, "Flexible by Design: Energy Resilience for Business," addressing grid bottlenecks and volatile energy costs facing European enterprises.

Paris – September 08, 2026 -- Global electricity grid investment must rise roughly 50%, from about $400 billion today to nearly $600 billion annually by 2030, the International Energy Agency estimates, as electrification of transport, industry and buildings collides with surging data-center demand. The figures were presented at the CIGRE 2026 Paris Session, which drew more than 15,000 experts from 100 countries and 330 exhibitors.

Permitting delays of eight to ten years threaten Europe and US grid rollout

Delivery speed has become the central bottleneck. In China, an extra-high-voltage transmission line can be permitted and built in about 1.5 years, and in India in roughly three years, according to the IEA. In Europe and the United States, comparable projects frequently take eight to ten years or longer.

Shanghai – September 08, 2026 -- The global solar generator and plug-in solar storage market grew from roughly USD 1.1 billion in 2021 to USD 2.6 billion in 2025 and is projected to reach approximately USD 5.8 billion by 2030, according to a new white paper from Frost & Sullivan.

Market shifts from niche backup power to core household energy infrastructure

Frost & Sullivan attributes the more than fivefold expansion since 2021 to rising demand for household backup power, outdoor electricity use, self-consumption and energy independence. The research firm states that solar generators and plug-in storage devices are evolving from scenario-specific supplementary tools into comprehensive household energy solutions.

Madison, Wisconsin – September 08, 2026 -- Realta Fusion has entered a strategic partnership with Madison Gas and Electric (MGE) and its parent, MGE Energy, Inc., to explore joint development of a 200-megawatt electric fusion power plant in Wisconsin.

MGE Energy makes direct equity investment in Realta Fusion

MGE Energy has completed a direct equity investment in Realta as the first phase of the partnership. The utility has also committed to supplying equipment, engineering, and technical support, along with assistance on siting, permitting, interconnection, and financing for the proposed plant.

Antwerp – September 08, 2026 -- Skyven Technologies said its Arcturus industrial heat pump demonstration center in Texas has achieved a sustained coefficient of performance (COP) of 8.0, a gain of more than 20% over the 6.5 COP recorded at commissioning and above the target set in the company's original roadmap.

Arcturus surpasses its own commissioning benchmark through design and control upgrades

Skyven attributed the jump to improvements in system design, control algorithms and integration engineering at the Texas facility. The result confirms the ceiling performance of the Arcturus product line, which the company tailors to individual client sites, balancing COP against required temperature lift. Across its range, Arcturus delivers temperature increases of 38°C to 185°C, with corresponding COPs from 8.0 down to 2.0.

Berlin – September 08, 2026 -- European grid operators, regulators and digital infrastructure executives convened for an Economist Enterprise panel warning that AI data center and electric vehicle demand is pushing power grids toward capacity limits, forcing energy resilience into boardroom decision-making across the continent.

EcoFlow leverages 10 million deployed devices to enter commercial energy market

The panel, titled "Flexible by Design: Energy Resilience for Business," was released ahead of IFA Berlin 2026, running Sept. 4-8 at Messe Berlin Hall 3.2. EcoFlow, drawing on a global footprint of over 10 million deployed devices and 5 million users, is extending its consumer battery and solar architecture into small business and enterprise segments, citing modular hardware, dynamic tariff optimization and AI-driven software as core commercial offerings.

Paris – September 08, 2026 -- Annual global investment in electricity grids must rise roughly 50%, from about USD 400 billion today to nearly USD 600 billion by 2030, according to International Energy Agency figures cited at the CIGRE 2026 Paris Session, which drew more than 15,000 experts from 100 countries and 330 exhibitors.

Grid investment must jump 50% as electrification accelerates

The IEA attributes the surge to transport, industry and building electrification, renewable-energy integration, and rising data-center power demand. Power systems are approaching operational limits as these forces converge, according to the IEA data presented at the session.