Investor Claritas and system integrator Hynfra Energy Storage (HES) have signed a framework agreement to deploy half a gigawatt of utility-scale battery energy storage in Poland.
The two firms, based in the Netherlands and Poland respectively, signed the agreement last week (13 December). The battery energy storage systems deployed will participate in electricity wholesale markets and provide grid support services to help Poland decarbonise its energy system.
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Claritas described itself as an energy transition investor while HES is the utility-scale energy storage systems developer arm of Hynfra, a firm which provides a range of renewable energy solutions with a big emphasis on green hydrogen. It also has an office in Japan.
“Hynfra Energy Storage’s mission is to make the transition to the renewable energy as soon as possible. And the creation of a platform of utility-scale electricity storage assets is our first move towards achieving this goal. We are delighted to team up with CLARITAS as a partner and convinced that our Framework Development Agreement will lead the battery storage market in Poland in terms of scale, quality of assets and speed of deployment,” said Piotr Czembor, CEO of Hynfra Energy Storage.
The companies said the battery storage projects will value stack revenues from market trading and grid support services.
Like other EU countries, Poland has increased its renewable energy mix target in light of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. It is targetting around half of electricity from renewable sources by 2040, and energy storage will be needed to balance out new intermittent generation, Czembor said in an interview with local media.
Poland’s energy storage market has been relatively slow to pick up compared to its Western and Central European peers but the firms’ announcement is the second large-scale project announced in the last few months.
In July, Energy-Storage.news reported on state-owned power company PGE Group’s regulatory green light to deploy a 200MW/820MWh battery storage unit integrated with an existing pumped hydro plant in Żarnowiec. The two technologies will together firm the power from up to 3.5GW of wind capacity being developed by PGE nearby.
It is Claritas’ first investment in energy storage in Poland, a solar PV market in which it has been active since 2018 with a gigawatt-scale portfolio today.
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