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Storing excess green power in large battery containers at wind and solar farms to get through windless and sunless periods. It seems so logical, but now only produces losses. Yet the Dutch company
The Dutch energy transition has a problem. By 2030, the government wants to generate 120 terawatt hours of electricity from solar and wind to reduce CO2 emissions by 55 percent. But new solar and wind farms cannot always be connected to the electricity grid because it is full and cannot handle the supply of green power on sunny and windy days. The electricity price is then often zero. If the SDE subsidy for wind and solar farms is abolished after 2025, they will suffer losses at such times and it will become less interesting to build them. The solution: batteries in large sea containers to temporarily store green power.
More green power
This is especially true for solar power, because it is only generated at limited times during the day and is mainly used in the evening, while at night it just blows through. A report by commissioned by RVO last year showed that with 5.5 gigawatts of battery storage, 7.5 gigawatts of additional solar farms could be connected to the existing grid. That's an additional 5 terawatts of green power per year. Enough for 2 million households and good for 1.6 to 2.2 million tons of CO2 reduction per year. Batteries of this kind accelerate the energy transition, because solar parks - this includes large flat roofs full of solar panels - with batteries can have a smaller connection to the grid and better distribute their power throughout the day. Businesses (sites) with batteries also benefit from a smaller connection and are able to use more of their own power instead of feeding it back to the grid. More solar farms can then also be connected when the grid is expanded. Unfortunately, these types of batteries are not currently profitable for developers.
Grid batteries
You can in fact make money with a battery in several ways. For example, by supplying power at times when coal, gas and nuclear plants supply too little and storing power when too much power comes onto the market. In doing so, grid operators prevent grid congestion and imbalance on the grid. These types of batteries are called grid batteries. Such a business case is already profitable, according to CE Delft's research this year, because grid operators such as TenneT pay a fixed amount to deploy these batteries. However, they do not contribute to CO2 reduction because they do not provide additional green power.
Not throwing electricity away
Batteries that store surplus solar and wind power can later offer that power on the electricity market EPEX. That avoids having to throw away green power. In the case of solar farms, this does not seem to be profitable until 2030. Batteries used only for this purpose have an uneconomic top of
Earlier connection
Another solution is temporary contracts with grid operators. For example, grid operators such as are entering into temporary contracts with solar farms with batteries. They agree, for example, that the farm will store solar power in the battery during the day and only supply it to the grid in the evening. This prevents grid congestion and allows a solar farm to be connected to the grid years earlier.
With wind farms, these types of batteries can never be made profitable, because they run for longer periods and require a very large, expensive battery to avoid throwing power away. Most battery capacity is also only used a few times a year.
Piling up business cases
"For all storage, you have to stack business cases," says Jasmijn Kleij innovation analyst smart energy systems at , which promotes energy innovations and collaboration within the top sector energy. "One business case is often not enough to make energy storage technology profitable."
Now, large-scale battery storage is mainly used against grid congestion and grid imbalance. National high-voltage grid operator Tennet already has 28 gigawatts of battery connection requests pending. The regional grid operators another 6 gigawatts, making a total of . A growth of 77 percent since last October. "Still, there is not really a business case for batteries at solar farms yet," Kleij notes. "Because if you want to use that to store power for countering grid congestion and imbalance, you have to reserve such a large part of your battery for that, that you don't have enough space left to trade on energy markets. With additional policies, such as the SDE++ for deferred delivery, that business case for batteries at solar farms can become more favorable and more solar farms can be built."
Booming business
The Dutch company has been active in the energy market for 85 years. For example, it built its first transformer station in the 1960s. Today, the company also supplies charging points for electric vehicles.
Logical place
Storing unused capacity
Linking batteries to solar and wind farms has several advantages, he says. They stabilize the grid, prevent grid congestion and lower the connection costs of farms to the grid. With batteries, solar and wind farms can form a local energy grid that provides local parties with enough power at any time.
Modular system
During trade show
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