Update 21 November 2024: Trina Storage will also provide and integrate BESS equipment at the 56MW/112MWh project in Wetzen, in addition to the previously announced deal for the Strübbel asset, the system integrator told Energy-Storage.news today. Trina will provide its Elementa BESS solution at both sites, power conversion system (PCS) and medium-voltage skid solutions, as well as a tailored BESS-to-power plant controller (PPC) / SCADA system. An 18-year service contract is also in place.
Renewable energy developer-investor Aquila Clean Energy has contracted optimiser Entrix to provide route-to-market services for two battery projects in Germany.
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The deal, announced by Entrix today, is for battery energy storage system (BESS) projects with a combined output and capacity of 106MW/212MWh, in the German states of Schleswig-Holstein and Lower Saxony.
The optimiser and trading platform provider said the partnership covers a ‘full stack’ of energy market opportunities, including frequency containment reserve (FCR) and automated frequency restoration reserve (aFRR) ancillary services as well as energy trading in day-ahead and wholesale markets.
Both systems are part of a 14-project portfolio of standalone BESS assets Aquila Clean Energy EMEA is developing in the European country, representing more than 900MW of output to the grid.
The project in Schleswig-Holstein is Aquila’s first to be built from that pipeline. The start of construction was announced in late August, and the 50MW/100MWh lithium iron phosphate (LFP) BESS will be supplied and integrated by Trina Storage, the energy storage arm of major Chinese solar PV manufacturer Trina Solar. Construction is being carried out by H&MV Engineering.
As reported by Energy-Storage.news at the time of that announcement, the project is in the Schleswig-Holstein municipality of Strübbel, close to where much of Germany’s onshore wind generation capacity is installed in the north. Aquila said this makes it an ideal spot for batteries to contribute to the grid integration of variable renewable energy (VRE).
The second project, at 56MW/112MWh, was announced yesterday and is in the Lower Saxony municipality of Wetzen, about 170km south of Strübbel but still strategically close to the northern wind power corridor between Hamburg and St. Peter-Ording.
The BESS system integrator, supplier, or other contractors for the Wetzen project have not yet been publicly announced.
Despite the head start for the project in Strübbel, both are expected to go into commercial operation in early 2026.
‘Essential role of optimisation’
“The optimisation of batteries across all market segments is essential to realise the full long-term value of our projects,” Aquila Clean Energy EMEA commercial director for energy storage Kilian Leykam said.
Aquila Clean Energy is active in renewable energy and energy storage investment and development globally through various regional offices, including Aquila Clean Energy Asia-Pacific (ACES APAC). The company said it has a global battery storage development portfolio of 4.5GW in Europe, including the 900MW in Germany.
Entrix, headquartered in Munich, launched its optimisation services in 2022 through its artificial intelligence (AI) driven automated trading platform, designed to dynamically market battery storage assets in various energy markets, according to the company.
Aquila’s Kiliam Leykam said the Entrix platform “will enable the batteries to maximise their performance while enhancing power system stability and supporting the integration of renewables in the power system.”
In a September 2023 interview with ESN Premium, CEO Steffen Schülzchen said that revenues for 2-hour duration battery assets in Germany had tripled from a year before. Meanwhile, the revenue stack had evolved from FCR, also known as primary control reserve (PCR) being the main source of revenues, with the introduction of aFRR across synchronised European power markets and a growing portion of the stack coming from energy trading.
The continued evolution of energy storage revenue stacks across Europe, including the emergence of aFRR, was covered in some detail in a recent Energy-Storage.news webinar with consultancy Clean Horizon.
At the beginning of this year, Leykam told this site that 2024 would likely be a year of battery storage buildout in Germany and the Nordic region for Aquila Clean Energy and the industry at large. This represented the fruition of projects developed “over the past years” now entering the construction phase, Leykam said.
This appears to have been borne out by project announcements from both markets throughout the year. In November alone, Energy-Storage.news has covered a 50MW/200MWh project in Germany’s North Rhine-Westphalia by developer Iqony and system integrator Fluence for which train operator Deutsche Bahn has just signed a power purchase agreement (PPA) ahead of construction, and the inauguration of a 100MW/200MWh project in Bavaria by Swiss and German investors, also using a Fluence-integrated battery storage solution.
Meanwhile in the Nordics, at the beginning of November BESS developer-operator Ingrid Capacity announced what it claimed is the region’s largest project, a 100MW/200MWh system in Sweden, while Flower, an optimiser headquartered in Sweden extended a Series A funding round that brought its total funding raised to date to €100 million (US$105.66 million).
