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/daily ·03 NOV 2026 ·TUESDAY ·2 MIN READ ·6 STORIES

Exelon's $8B battery bet and Fluence's leadership crisis

Exelon writes the largest US utility storage cheque on record, Fluence loses its top two executives simultaneously, and CATL expands its aviation battery ambitions on two fronts.

01 / The Day

TUESDAY 03 NOV 2026, ranked

06

Exelon plans $3-8B regulated BESS to relieve PJM crunch

Exelon outlined plans to invest $3-8 billion deploying 1.5-3.5 GW of regulated battery storage across Delaware, Maryland, and New Jersey — framing regulated storage as a way to deliver PJM capacity years faster than the congested interconnection queue allows.

  • Up to $7B for 1.5-3.5 GW of regulated BESS across DelMarVa territory, plus a $1B 500 MW Invenergy partnership
  • Regulated filing bypasses the PJM merchant interconnection queue backed up to six to nine years
  • Follows FERC's directive requiring PJM to propose a storage-specific capacity mechanism within 12 months
Why it mattersAt up to $8B, this is the largest single US utility storage commitment on record — it shows regulatory strategy is now the fastest path to deployed BESS.
01 exeloncorp.com↗

Huawei raises solar and storage equipment prices 5-15%

Huawei Digital Power notified customers of planned price increases of 5-15% across its solar inverter and energy storage portfolio, citing rising copper, PCB, and memory chip costs. It is the fourth major Chinese power-electronics maker to announce hikes since August.

  • 5-15% across residential, C&I, and utility-scale PV inverters; grid-forming storage gets a smaller 5-10% increase
  • Copper exceeded $14,700 per metric ton on the LME in mid-October, the primary cost driver cited
  • Sungrow, Growatt, KSTAR, and Inovance announced similar increases since August — module prices continued falling
Why it mattersA sector-wide repricing of Chinese power electronics changes the global solar-plus-storage cost equation — invisible in headline module spot prices.
02 pv-magazine.com↗

Fluence CEO and CFO exit simultaneously with immediate effect

Julian Nebreda and Ahmed Pasha departed Fluence — the world's largest dedicated BESS system integrator — simultaneously and with immediate effect, with no successor named for either role.

  • Both departures effective immediately; no interim or permanent successors announced
  • Fluence is the dominant BESS integrator globally with multi-GWh deployments across Europe, the Americas, and Asia-Pacific
  • Departure follows a difficult year of margin compression as Chinese equipment competition intensified
Why it mattersSimultaneous abrupt exits at CEO and CFO level at the world's largest BESS integrator suggest undisclosed financial stress or an accelerated strategic reset.
03 energy-storage.news↗

CATL flags sodium-ion demand from Australian mines and data centres

CATL's Australia and New Zealand general manager reported substantial commercial interest in sodium-ion batteries from Australian mining operators and data centre developers, citing thermal tolerance at temperature extremes as the key advantage over LFP.

  • Mining and data centre applications favour sodium-ion's thermal stability where LFP performance degrades
  • CATL's TENER+ sodium-ion system is the primary commercial offering, alongside its LMFP and LFP grid-storage lines
  • Australia's Collie BESS — the country's largest battery project — is already contracted on CATL technology
Why it mattersIf mining and data centres convert to sodium-ion at scale, CATL effectively hedges the lithium supply-chain risk constraining large industrial deployments.
04 energy-storage.news↗

Archer Aviation partners with ITA Airways for Italian eVTOL network

Archer Aviation and Italy's flag carrier ITA Airways finalised a commercial partnership to deploy Midnight eVTOL aircraft on short-hop urban routes across Italy, including Rome Fiumicino to the city centre — making ITA the first European airline to join Archer's commercial operator programme.

  • ITA Airways is the first European airline to partner with Archer; initial routes target Rome airport-to-city in under 10 minutes
  • Archer's Midnight holds FAA type certification; EASA certification for European commercial operations is still in progress
  • Partnership brings ITA's airport slots, premium passenger base, and regulatory relationships to the deployment
Why it mattersA national flag carrier integrating eVTOL into its airport-to-city product is a different order of commercial validation than a standalone startup trial.
05 archer.com↗

CATL signs exclusive battery deal for Blue Vector SKYLA V30 tiltrotor

CATL signed a comprehensive strategic and exclusive product agreement with Chinese eVTOL developer Blue Vector to develop custom high-energy-density aviation-grade battery packs for the SKYLA V30 — a 2-tonne, six-seat tiltrotor designed for intercity ranges above 150 km.

  • SKYLA V30 is a tiltrotor targeting intercity distances, requiring higher energy density than short-range urban eVTOL platforms
  • Exclusive arrangement means CATL will design the battery architecture around the SKYLA V30's specific flight profile
  • CATL brings aviation cell expertise from its existing EHang EH216 battery supply relationship
Why it mattersCATL designing exclusive cells for an intercity tiltrotor signals a move up the aviation electrification complexity ladder — beyond urban hops toward electric regional transit.
06 catl.com↗
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The Daily Archive

/TUE 03 NOVExelon's $8B battery bet and Fluence's leadership crisis/MON 02 NOVModule record, nuclear billions, grid wire/SUN 01 NOVThe 60-second mystery/SAT 31 OCTOctober 31, 2026/FRI 30 OCTLG and Tesla; Sodium Goes National; BYD Goes European/THU 29 OCTCATL goes big, sodium-ion finds its data centre customer, and China owns electrolysers/WED 28 OCTWednesday: Virtual Gigawatts, Weird Reactors, One Surrender/TUE 27 OCTSolar Tops Nuclear, and the Grid Keeps Moving/MON 26 OCT2026-10-26/SUN 25 OCTWhen the data centres blink/SAT 24 OCTKorea's grid flipped, Google's running a power plant/FRI 23 OCTSonnen Falls, Waratah Scales, BNEF Calls 2026 Peak Storage/THU 22 OCTGigawatts of intent, from Kentucky to the outback/WED 21 OCTWednesday: 400 Wh/kg, Anode-Free Sodium, New York Goes Thermal/TUE 20 OCTSolid-state graduates, seafloor sparks/MON 19 OCTSolar Records, AI Batteries, and a Geothermal First/SUN 18 OCTGrid Foundations/SAT 17 OCTTechnology War Saturday/FRI 16 OCTThe Build vs. the Setback/THU 15 OCTThe Energy Brief — October 15, 2026/WED 14 OCTCells and Gigafactories