System integrator Powin has been enlisted by oil, gas and renewable energy firm Galp to install a battery energy storage system (BESS) at a PV plant in Portugal, Powin’s first in Europe.
Powin will provide the 5MW/20MWh BESS for one of Galp’s operational PV plants, in the village of Alcoutim in the Algarve, south Portugal, the latter’s first such solar-plus-storage hybridisation.
The 4-hour BESS will shift the solar PV plants production into periods of higher demand and lower production, maximising its value.
It will be Oregon-headquartered Powin’s first project in Europe, having to date mainly been deployed in the US, Asia, and Australia, and it recently set up an office in Madrid. VP Danny Liu talked to Energy-Storage.news a year ago about opportunities in the UK’s BESS market but no announcements have been made as of yet.
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The firm’s grid-scale BESS product is the Stack750E, a lithium iron phosphate (LFP) based 750kWh modular unit that, when stacked with others, comprises its Centipede platform.
Georgios Papadimitriou, Galp’s executive director in charge of renewables, new business, and innovation, commented: “As Galp keeps growing its renewable energy capacity aiming to transform its industrial base to produce green fuels and sell renewable energy to its clients, storage solutions are key to ensure a steady supply of electrons to our businesses.”
“Batteries also add to the competitiveness of our renewable energy portfolio by making solar and wind power available when they are most needed.”
Large-scale energy storage projects in Portugal have been relatively small in number, although 2022 saw the inauguration of a 40GWh pumped hydro energy storage (PHES) project by utility Iberdrola.
On the BESS side, system integrator Fluence deployed a 15MWh project in Terceira and a 16.4MWh one in Madeira, two of Portugal’s islands, while developer and IPP Greenvolt is in the midst of commissioning a 5MWh one at a biomass plant in Coimbra, on the mainland.
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