Zhejiang opens grid battery spot trading as Amazon, Fortum push electrification money

The notice came jointly from the Zhejiang office of China's National Energy Administration, the provincial development and reform commission and the provincial energy bureau. Independent grid-side storage participates on a self-scheduled basis, choosing each day whether to enter the energy market or the frequency-regulation ancillary services market. Zhejiang plans to move storage to price-and-quantity bidding from 1 January 2027.

Of the 40 listed projects, 28 totalling 2.13 GW/4.27 GWh are already in commercial operation and centrally dispatched, so they can bid in both markets. Another six operating projects, 0.11 GW/0.22 GWh, can enter the energy market only. The regulator said projects not registered as storage will in principle not be dispatched in normal grid operation.

That is a hard signal to asset owners: register and trade, or sit idle.

The move follows China's 2025 decision to scrap its energy storage mandate for renewable energy plants and the capacity price floor for grid-scale storage set in February, pv magazine reported on 26 September. Zhejiang is pushing storage out of administrative support and into merchant risk. Revenue there depends on spread capture and frequency regulation prices, not on a guaranteed tariff.

Money is moving elsewhere in the same direction. On 25 September, Tech.eu reported that Nordic energy company Fortum joined Norrsken Evolve as a limited partner, investing through its innovation and venturing arm. The pre-seed fund closed this summer at 62 million euro, oversubscribed. Norrsken Evolve has backed more than 80 companies, 75 per cent of which went on to raise follow-on investment, according to Tech.eu. Fortum supplies more than two million customers and works in low-carbon power generation, customer services, and heating and cooling.

"The future energy system will be built through faster innovation and closer collaboration between entrepreneurs, investors and industry," Gustav Eilertsen, VP of Innovation and Venturing at Fortum, said in the Tech.eu report.

On the same day, The Robot Report said Amazon plans to invest more than $100 million in a new 585,000-square-foot advanced manufacturing facility in Greenwood, Indiana, with 300 skilled manufacturing and engineering jobs and a launch expected by 2028. The site will integrate fabrication, robotic welding, automated powder coating and assembly. It will produce components that power Amazon's fulfilment and robotics network across North America. Amazon has manufactured more than one million robots in the US to date, deployed across more than 300 facilities globally.

Electric road freight is scaling up too. Volvo's new generation of heavy-duty electric trucks, the FH Electric, FM Electric, FMX Electric and FH Aero Electric, was named International Truck of the Year 2027 at IAA Transportation in Hanover, CleanTechnica reported on 27 September. Series production started on 14 September at the Tuve plant in Gothenburg, with additional production planned in Ghent. Volvo says the FH Aero Electric can travel up to 700 kilometres on a single charge, and about 7,000 of its electric trucks have accumulated roughly 500 million kilometres since 2019.

Grid-side storage economics still vary sharply by market. In New York, Canary Media reported on 23 September that First Student and Con Edison are advancing a $9 million electric school bus pilot, with 10 buses at an East New York depot, 40 more due by June, and a target of up to 10 megawatts of vehicle-to-grid and facility-to-grid capability over the next couple of years. Con Ed forecasts electric buses, trucks and other commercial vehicles will add over 100 megawatts of demand by 2030.

Zhejiang's auction calendar, not pilot targets, is what will test whether batteries can earn a living.