While there are comparable projects in Europe, the $1 billion battery project announced this week in the US is all the more surprising, for its scale, at a time when storage is most closely associated with renewables, an area where the US lags woefully. The Advanced Clean Energy Storage project will launch in Utah, and eventually store 1 GW of energy, for an undisclosed duration. The companies behind it are Mitsubishi Hitachi Power Systems (MHPS) who will supply the power equipment and Magnum Development who brings access to a salt cavern close to the Intermountain Power Project, where it will be situated. There is no Lithium Ion in sight here, but a mix of compressed air energy storage (CAES), flow…