A renewables-only subsidiary of utility Eneco and developer Energisto have revealed a battery energy storage system (BESS) joint venture in Germany, which expects construction permits for up to 400MWh of projects this year.
Eneco subsidiary LichtBlick and Energisto eG have founded the GigaCharge joint venture (JV) which will develop and commission BESS projects in Germany, LichtBlick announced last week (13 June).
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The move into BESS is a new area for both companies, with Energisto having primarily developed solar and LichtBlick already owning its own solar PV generation plants but not yet energy storage. They expect building permits for BESS projects with a total capacity of up to 400MWh to be issued this year.
Germany has ambitious renewable deployment targets to achieve a goal of 80% renewable energy by 2030, including 215GW of solar PV by that date, which is driving the need for large-scale energy storage to balance supply and demand and shore up grid stability.
“The economic added value of large battery storage systems is enormous,” said Dr. Enno Wolf, LichtBlick COO.
LightBlick is a utility that claims to provide 100% green electricity, and is part of Netherlands-headquartered utility Eneco.
The firm’s announcement indicated that Eneco may use its energy trading platform to monetise the BESS projects once operational, pointing out that Eneco already does that in Germany, Belgium and the Netherlands and that its remuneration model is “financeable and offers secure revenues”.
Just yesterday, Energy-Storage.news reported on a BESS project in the Netherlands that Eneco will effectively rent from owner Dispatch and trade in the market via a toll agreement.
LichtBlick also commended the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Action of Germany (abbreviated as BMWK) for its Electricity Storage Strategy to reshape the electricity system to help facilitate large-scale energy storage on the grid.
“The current framework counteracts the exploitation of the potential of large-scale battery storage systems,” Wolf added. LichtBlick has a total clean energy project pipeline of around 4,000MW via multiple development partnerships.
The JV with Energisto is not LichtBlick’s first announced foray into energy storage. It is co-developing and financing a large-scale compressed air energy storage (CAES) project with Corre Energy, set to start operations in 2027, via a deal agreed in January.
