The location, within the state of North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW), homes the previous Würgassen nuclear energy plant which was decommissioned in 1994 however nonetheless stands in the present day. The location will enable the BESS to utilise present grid infrastructure together with a transformer and energy strains.
Although not acknowledged, that infrastructure also needs to embody a grid interconnection level, which may typically take years and even a long time to acquire for greenfield initiatives.
Westphalia Weser will make investments €92 million (US$100 million) within the challenge, which ought to come on-line in H2 2026. Mayor Grimm defined that the choice comes after the state rejected various plans for the location.
“On the finish of 2023, the Federal Setting Ministry happily rejected plans for a central storage facility for low- and medium-level radioactive nuclear waste in Würgassen. With a future-oriented challenge that helps the power transition comes into focus, we reside as much as our position as one of many 4 power areas named within the NRW regional plan,” he mentioned.
The challenge will enhance the steadiness of the grid’s power provide, the Westphalia Weser’s announcement mentioned.
It was described as a pilot challenge however at 120MW/280MWh it might be one of many largest BESS initiatives in Germany. Techniques of 235MWh and 200MWh are at the moment being constructed by utility and generator RWE and developer BW Storage respectively, whereas one other developer Kyon Power mentioned building on a 275MWh one will begin in 2024.
A number of 300MW/600MWh initiatives are being deliberate by developer and system integrator Kyon Power, which was acquired by buyers Brookfield and NIC firstly of the yr.
Germany had round 1GW/1GWh of front-of-meter grid-scale power storage on-line as of end-2023 and, in line with a latest report from consultancy GEEC, that would enhance to 50GW by 2037. The market picked up in 2022 and 2023 after a number of years of stagnant grid-scale deployments.
A significant improvement this yr noticed the federal government launch an Electrical energy Storage Technique, which ‘put storage on the political agenda for the primary time’ in line with Lars Stephan, senior supervisor of coverage and market improvement for BESS integrator Fluence on LinkedIn.