Precious metals are having a moment. Gold and silver surged to record highs in January, benefiting from an alignment of macroeconomic factors, evolving supply-demand dynamics, and renewed industrial demand.

Silver is having one of its most extraordinary years in modern market history.

Recently, the European Commission has approved a €400 million state aid scheme for Greece aimed at supporting the country's clean technology manufacturing sector. The scheme aligns with the Net Zero Industrial Act (NZIA) and has been authorised under the Clean Industries Agreement State Aid Framework (CISAF). It will promote domestic manufacturing of technologies including solar panels, wind turbines, heat pumps, electrolysers, and carbon capture, utilisation and storage (CCUS) through direct grants and tax incentives.

On February 3, 2026, the United States and India formally signed a bilateral trade agreement, reaching a significant consensus on tariff arrangements for Indian goods exported to the US market. Under the terms of the agreement, the reciprocal tariff rate applicable to Indian goods (including solar modules and energy storage components) was reduced from 25% to 18%.

Recently, Moonwatt announced that its sodium-ion battery energy storage project, implemented in the Cleantech Park in Arnhem, the Netherlands, has been successfully put into operation. It is reported that this flagship project was jointly developed by Moonwatt, IPKW, and Veolia, marking the first practical deployment of a sodium-ion battery energy storage system specifically designed for hybrid solar power plants. The project utilizes Moonwatt's self-developed modular "string battery," which encapsulates sodium-ion battery cells in a passively cooled, sealed, and noiseless battery shell. Through a shared hybrid inverter and solar panels, it achieves DC coupling, effectively addressing challenges such as high costs and complex operation and maintenance during the hybridization of solar power plants, enabling seamless scaling from kilowatt to gigawatt levels.

4th Feb , LGES officially announced a cooperation agreement with Qcells, a wholly-owned subsidiary of South Korea's Hanwha Group. The agreement includes a 5 GWh lithium-ion battery energy storage system (BESS) for energy storage projects in the US. LGES will provide full life cycle services, with delivery scheduled from 2028 to 2030.The ESS provided by LGES will adopt the latest containerized lithium battery solution, utilizing LFP batteries produced at LG's US factory. It is reported that the capacity of LGES's battery plant in Michigan, US. Qcells' solar panels are manufactured in Georgia, US. This cooperation will meet local manufacturing requirements in the US, further reducing trade and tariff risks.

Spain's Ecological Transition Ministry plans to launch a EUR 480 million (USD 558.3 million) subsidy program to support domestic manufacturing of clean energy technologies. The draft program terms are open for public consultation until September 8.

[Tongliao Plans to Approve New Energy Recycling Project Covering Fields Such as Batteries, Wind Power, and PV] Recently, the Ecological and Environmental Bureau of Tongliao City, Inner Mongolia, issued a public notice on the planned approval of the "New Energy Recycling Project of Tongliao Changtong New Energy Technology Co., Ltd." The advancement of this project brings new opportunities for the development of the local new energy industry and highlights Tongliao's forward-looking layout in the field of green energy. The current phase of this project focuses on multiple fields. It will construct workshops for the second-life application and recycling of retired power batteries for new energy vehicles. Upon completion, it will be able to second-life apply 10,000 mt of retired lithium-ion batteries and dismantle and crush 20,000 mt of waste lithium-ion batteries annually. Meanwhile, it will establish workshops for retired wind power and PV motor units, achieving an annual recycling capacity of 39,000 mt of waste solar panels and 87,000 mt of waste wind turbine blades. Additionally, an ESS workshop is planned. Although only the factory building will be constructed in this phase without production, space has been reserved for the second-phase development.

[SMM Analysis] This article introduces knowledge related to energy storage in a straightforward manner by addressing three questions: What is energy storage? Why do we need energy storage? How is energy storage implemented? At its core, energy storage is a technological system designed to address the temporal and spatial mismatches in electricity supply and demand, enabling the transfer of energy across time through forms such as chemical energy (e.g., batteries) and potential energy (e.g., pumped hydro storage). Its core architecture comprises four major modules: energy storage battery cells serve as the energy carriers, with the LFP route dominating the market; PCS converters facilitate AC-DC conversion; the BMS system monitors the safety of tens of thousands of battery cells in real time; and the EMS system optimizes charging and discharging strategies based on electricity price signals. The primary demand for energy storage covers the power generation and grid side, as well as the demand side. Current technological iterations focus on large-capacity battery cells, such as the 587Ah cell from CATL and the 684Ah cell used in combination by Sungrow.

On May 19, Thailand’s BOI introduced four measures to support local firms facing U.S. tariffs.