Eneco's largest battery will see the light of day in 2024
Eneco is investing in a major battery energy storage project in Wallonia. With the installation of a 50 MW/200 MWh of battery energy storage, sustainably generated electricity can be used more efficiently to balance Belgium's electricity grid. The permit has been obtained, the battery ordered and preparatory study works are underway to have the project operational by the end of 2024. The battery power plant in Ville-sur-Haine in Wallonia will be fully owned.
The Battery Energy Storage System (BESS) consists of 53 Megapacks energy storage units from Tesla, for a total of 50 MW/200 MWh of storage. It can supply power to the grid for 4 hours. A growing number of wind turbines and solar panels are taking over much of the power production from existing fossil fuel power plants. However, there is not always electricity from wind and solar, the demand is only partly controllable and therefore it is important to have flexible storage. This makes it possible to offer (spare) capacity when needed to keep the power grid in balance. In cooperation with Belgian high-voltage grid operator Elia, the battery ensures that the ever-increasing volumes of variable solar and wind energy can be deployed in an efficient way and keeps grid power in balance.
"We are strengthening our renewable energy activities in order to contribute to reducing CO2 emissions. In this regard, energy storage is very important to absorb the fluctuations of renewable energy. This project is an important step for us towards a CO2-neutral energy system in 2035," said Tine Deheegher, manager Renewable Energy Solutions at Eneco.
The battery energy storage project is another step in Eneco's investments in Belgium's transition to a fully sustainable energy system. With 128 onshore wind turbines, participations in Belgium's 2 largest offshore wind farms and nearly 400,000 solar panels, it is the largest green and the greenest major energy player in the country. By fully deploying battery energy storage, Eneco is contributing to a future-proof, reliable and affordable energy system in Belgium.
With this project, Eneco is taking a new step towards a fully sustainable energy system in Belgium and fulfilling the One Planet Plan with the ambition of being fully climate neutral by 2035. Batteries play an important role in achieving this ambition and the goal is to develop even more of them. At present, however, investments in battery projects in the Netherlands still lag behind those in surrounding countries. TenneT's annual report on security of supply shows that at least 10 GW of batteries will be needed by 2030, and at the moment only 0.3 GW of installed capacity has been realized in the Netherlands. We call on the Dutch government to learn from policies in Belgium and Germany so that the Netherlands can actually achieve a climate-neutral electricity supply by 2035.