Developer Ingrid Capacity and the storage arm of maritime firm BW Group are now building 14 BESS projects in Sweden with a combined capacity of over 200MW, with the latter also entering the Italian market.
The pair announced the start of construction on eight battery energy storage system (BESS) projects ranging from 11-20MW across Sweden yesterday (13 February) totalling 122MW, following news in September 2023 that work had started on six totalling 89MW, meaning the total being built under the partnership stands at 211MW.
BW ESS, the maritime arm of BW Group, invested around US$100 million in developer Ingrid Capacity in April 2023 when Ingrid said it had a 400MW pipeline of near-term BESS projects in Sweden. The recent announcement said that Ingrid has an additional 800MW in development, and is active in Finland and Estonia too.
Discussing the grid-scale market in Sweden at the Energy Storage Summit EU last year, Ingrid’s chief strategy officer told Energy-Storage.news the market was being driven by hydroelectric power becoming less suited to the country’s growing ancillary services market.
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Some 200MW of BESS could subsequently come online this year in Sweden, optimiser Flextools told us in a recent interview, and this announcement from Ingrid and BW ESS will go some way to that.
BESS are likely to primarily focus on the ancillary services market for several years meaning the vast majority, if not all, large-scale projects are 1-hour duration (Ingrid and BW did not reveal the MWh capacity of their projects).
That includes the largest in the country under construction, a 93.9MW system from independent power producer (IPP) Neoen and system integrator Nidec, set to come online in the first half of 2025.
First Sweden, now Italy for BW ESS
In concurrent news, BW ESS also announced plans to enter the grid-scale market in Italy in a joint venture partnership with local developer ACL Energy and UK-based developer-operator Penso Power.
The trio will become joint shareholders in three development-stage BESS projects totalling 395MW of capacity, comprising a 111MW project in Lombardia, a 97MW project in Puglia and a 187MW one in Piemonte. The Lombardi and Puglia systems have been submitted to the Italian Ministry of Energy for approval while Piemonte will be later this year.
Covered extensively this past year by Energy-Storage.news, the grid-scale BESS market in Italy looks set to take off in the coming few years, the subject of a deep-dive feature in an edition of Solar Media’s quarterly journal PV Tech Power last year.
Significant market-driven opportunities in the capacity market, ancillary services market and a new market platform to buy and sell time-shifting of renewables will be supported by a €17.7 billion (US$19 billion) package of grants, approved by the EU at the end of 2023.
Energy-Storage.news’ publisher Solar Media will host the 9th annual Energy Storage Summit EU in London, 20-21 February 2024. This year it is moving to a larger venue, bringing together Europe’s leading investors, policymakers, developers, utilities, energy buyers and service providers all in one place. Visit the official site for more info.
