Construction has begun on a 30MW battery energy storage system (BESS) in Finland, developed by Glennmont Partners, local IPP Ilmatar, and deployed by ESS firm Alfen.
The project broke ground in May this year and is set to reach commercial operation date (COD) in 2024. It will be sited adjacent to Glennmont’s 211MW Piiparinmäki onshore wind farm, pictured above.
Glennmonth said that the project’s development would involve independent power producer (IPP) Ilmatar, which was the technical and commercial management agent for the wind farm, which reached COD in mid-2022.
Netherlands-based Alfen will provide its modular-grid scale BESS product – The Battery Elements – for the project. It is Alfen’s second BESS project in Finland co-located with wind, after it received an order from another independent power producer (IPP) EPV Energy for its Tevu wind farm around a year ago.
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Francesco Cacciabue, Partner at Glennmont, commented: “Battery technology will play an increasingly vital role in both Finland and the wider world’s energy mix in the years to come, mitigating intermittency issues and ensuring we gain maximum benefit from established renewables technologies.”
Although the announcement did not specify what grid infrastructure the two resources would share, if any, Cacciabue indicated there would be some synergy between them, adding:
“Siting the project next to our existing Piiparinmäki wind farm allows us to take full advantage of the fruitful relationship between the two technologies’ benefits, ensuring maximum opportunity for our investors.”
Michelle Lesh, CCO at Alfen, said: “We’re excited to work with Glennmont and Ilmatar as they support Finland’s goal to become carbon neutral by 2035. Energy storage is a critical enabler to meeting this goal, and Alfen’s battery storage technology such as The Battery Elements continues to evolve to better stabilize electricity grids and integrate renewable projects.”
The energy storage market in Finland is being driven by growing wind generation and the limitations of its existing fleet of pumped hydro storage, according to local system integrator Merus Power speaking to Energy-Storage.news at the Energy Storage Summit EU in March.
Projects are mainly providing ancillary services for now, and the duration of the 30MW BESS was not revealed. Wind-heavy regions tend to be more ancillary service-focused markets for battery storage, compared to solar PV-heavy ones where the main revenue source is renewable load shifting.
