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/daily ·13 OCT 2026 ·TUESDAY ·2 MIN READ ·6 STORIES

Tuesday dispatch

Qcells chases the tandem solar factory that does not exist yet, Australia's grid batteries earn AU$6M in two hours, and Eskom launches Africa's largest-ever clean-energy tender.

01 / The Day

TUESDAY 13 OCT 2026, ranked

06

Qcells pursues first large-scale perovskite-silicon tandem solar factory

Qcells is advancing plans for what would be the world's first gigawatt-scale manufacturing line for perovskite-silicon tandem solar cells — a technology capable of exceeding 30% efficiency that has never been produced at commercial scale.

  • Tandem cells stack a perovskite layer on silicon to capture a broader light spectrum than either material alone
  • Commercial efficiency target exceeds 30%, versus roughly 22-23% for best current mass-market silicon panels
  • Factory location and financing not yet disclosed; ARENA and US DOE grant programs are among likely funding sources
Why it mattersTandem solar has been near-commercial for years; a credible first factory build changes the timeline from eventually to before 2030.
01 canarymedia.com↗

NSW batteries earn AU$6M in two hours as grid prices spike to AU$23K/MWh

Battery storage systems across New South Wales earned approximately AU$5.63M during a two-hour window on October 12 when wholesale electricity prices peaked at roughly 230x typical rates — a live demonstration of grid-scale storage economics.

  • AU$23,107/MWh is roughly 230x typical wholesale rates; AEMO classified the event as extreme
  • Earnings accrued across multiple BESS operators, not a single project
  • High solar penetration creates midday volatility conditions that BESS can arbitrage profitably
Why it mattersWhen batteries earn six figures per hour during a single grid event, the payback case for storage stops being a financial model and starts being a bank statement.
02 energy-storage.news↗

Eskom launches Africa's largest renewables tender: 6 GW with storage

South African utility Eskom issued a qualification process for co-development partnerships covering up to 6 GW of renewables and 1 GW/4 GWh of utility-scale battery storage — the single largest clean-energy procurement in Africa to date.

  • Eskom's contribution includes at least 2 GW solar and 1 GW/4 GWh batteries across a five-year co-development panel
  • Tender signals Eskom's strategic pivot from coal legacy to clean supply growth after years of loadshedding crisis
  • Qualification process is the first step; full bidding and contracts will follow on a multi-year timeline
Why it mattersAt 6 GW, this tender is large enough to reshape the economics of the entire sub-Saharan clean-energy supply chain.
03 pv-magazine.com↗

Chile commissions 802MWh BESS and finances 1,769MWh in the same week

Chile added two major battery storage milestones simultaneously: Engie commissioned an 802MWh BESS, and Grenergy secured project financing for the final 1,769MWh phase of its Oasis de Atacama solar-plus-storage project.

  • Oasis de Atacama, once fully built, will be one of the largest solar-plus-storage projects in the southern hemisphere
  • Chile's grid faces severe midday solar curtailment, making storage increasingly the only workable grid response
  • Grenergy's financing came through project finance structures, not government grants
Why it mattersTwo multi-hundred-MWh milestones in a single country on the same day signals Chile's storage buildout has moved from planning documents to live execution.
04 energy-storage.news↗

Energy Dome opens CO2-based long-duration storage factory in Italy

Energy Dome opened its first manufacturing facility in Piacenza, producing components for its CO2-based long-duration energy storage system — including the large domes that store compressed carbon dioxide between charge cycles.

  • CO2 battery stores energy by compressing and expanding carbon dioxide, requiring no lithium, cobalt, or rare earths
  • First in-house dome has already shipped to a project in India; Piacenza plant plans to triple capacity by 2028
  • Long-duration storage at 8-24 hour cycles fills a gap lithium-ion BESS cannot address economically
Why it mattersA factory turning novel chemistry into physical product is the bridge between lab demonstration and commercial deployment — Energy Dome has crossed it.
05 pv-magazine.com↗

Voltus raises $225M to expand its virtual power plant network

Distributed energy platform Voltus closed an oversubscribed $225M Series D round to expand virtual power plant services, which aggregate distributed batteries and demand flexibility across commercial and industrial customers into a single dispatchable grid asset.

  • VPP aggregation means batteries at factories, warehouses, and data centers can dispatch together as a coordinated grid resource
  • Expansion targets US and Canadian markets where distributed storage growth is outpacing centralized grid investment
  • Round followed strong grid revenue performance as BESS economics improved through 2025-26
Why it mattersThe software layer coordinating distributed batteries is becoming as important as the hardware beneath it — and Voltus is building a major position in that layer.
06 energy-storage.news↗
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