Daily Digest for

Aligned Data Centers and Calibrant Energy will deploy a 31 MW / 62 MWh on-site BESS at Aligned’s Pacific Northwest campus to accelerate grid interconnection and enable the facility to scale in 2026. Calibrant’s Path to Power solution is designed to discharge during peak demand, use U.S.-manufactured key equipment, and Calibrant is backed by Macquarie Asset Management ($580+ billion AUM).

Texas A&M researchers led by Dr. Michael J. Demkowicz developed the first metallic gel that traps liquid metals within a solid scaffold and demonstrated it as electrodes in a lab-scale liquid metal battery using calcium/iron (anode) and bismuth/iron (cathode). The work, first authored by doctoral student Charles Borenstein and published in Advanced Engineering Materials, was supported by the U.S. Department of Energy and the National Nuclear Security Administration.

At the first Regional Investment Summit in Birmingham the UK Government announced over 10 billion of public and private investment commitments and nearly 1,000 jobs across regions, with major projects in life sciences, AI, regeneration and housing. Notable deals include Leeds United’s 200 million stadium investment, Woven Capital’s up-to-300 million UK growth program, Hines’ 400 million for the 4 billion Birmingham Knowledge Quarter, and The Crown Estate’s Harwell East acquisition (GDV 4.5bn) projected to boost GDP by 2.5bn.

China’s Ministry of Commerce has codified export restrictions requiring national-security export licences for rare-earth and battery-related technologies, applying extraterritorially via Announcement 61 and blocking exports without official approval. The measures threaten European supply chains—ECB data says over 80% of main European firms are no more than three intermediaries away from Chinese rare-earth producers—and the article urges collective EU countermeasures using the 2023 Anti-Coercion Instrument.

Chancellor Rachel Reeves announced regulatory reforms aimed at cutting red tape and saving UK businesses nearly £6 billion per year, unveiled at the first Regional Investment Summit in Birmingham where private investors pledged over £10 billion (including £6.5 billion from Welltower). The Crown Estate purchased Harwell East (expected to add £2.5 billion and support 30,000 jobs) and the National Wealth Fund committed £104 million for wind projects and a Hull heat network.

IFC, AfDB and partners have appointed Inspired Evolution as investment manager for Zafiri, a DRE equity vehicle backed by an initial $300 million capitalization by 2026 and planned scale-up to $1 billion to expand electricity and clean cooking access across Sub-Saharan Africa. Zafiri aims to reach over 30 million people, begin operations in early 2026, and counts founding partners including The Rockefeller Foundation (anticipated $10 million), TDB Group, and NDF.

SINTEF’s Urban Ventilation project finds current Norwegian minimum ventilation requirements (TEK) insufficient for urban apartments; lab tests show kitchen extraction at 108 m³/h fails to capture cooking emissions and recommend 180 m³/h for adequate capture and 75 m³/h for bathroom extraction. The project involved partners including Røroshetta, used laboratory tests (72 salmon meals), was funded by EnergiX and business partners, and produced a report calling for updated test standards.