Iberdrola inaugurates 40GWh Tamega pumped hydro plant in Portugal

LinkedIn
Twitter
Reddit
Facebook
Email

Spanish utility Iberdrola has inaugurated its ‘Tâmega Gigabattery’ in northern Portugal, a renewable energy complex including pumped hydro with an energy storage capacity of 40GWh.

Iberdrola has invested €1.5 billion (US$1.54 billion) in the facility which combines two run-of-river hydroelectric plants and an 880MW PHES unit (Gouvães), with a total combined hydroelectric power of 1,158MW. That will increase the electrical power capacity on the Portuguese grid by 6%.

This article requires Premium SubscriptionBasic (FREE) Subscription

Enjoy 12 months of exclusive analysis

  • Regular insight and analysis of the industry’s biggest developments
  • In-depth interviews with the industry’s leading figures
  • Annual digital subscription to the PV Tech Power journal
  • Discounts on Solar Media’s portfolio of events, in-person and virtual

Or continue reading this article for free

The Tâmega electrical power production system can store 40GWh (40 million kWh), which makes it one of the largest energy storage systems in Europe.

The Portuguese prime minister António Costa and Iberdrola chairman Ignacio Galán inaugurated the project yesterday (July 18) morning, although a press release did not clarify exactly which parts of the complex are fully operational and grid-connected yet.

When the company turned on the first of Gouvães’ four 220MW turbines online in February, as reported on Energy-Storage.news, it said that Gouvães and one of the two run-of-river units would come online in mid-2022 while the second would start in mid-2024.

At full operations, the complex will also have 300MW of wind power, which will help power the PHES plant when it is pumping water up into the upper reservoir (i.e. charging).

Iberdrola has described the project as the “the largest clean energy project in Portugal’s history”.

It comes just a few weeks after Switzerland turned on its own large PHES project. The Nant de Drance plant cost CHF2.2 billion (US$2.3 billion) to build and has an energy storage capacity of 20GWh.

Read Next

Premium
May 20, 2025
ESN Premium speaks with Chloe Hicks of EnergyCo about New South Wales’ Renewable Energy Zones (REZ) and its hopes for energy storage.
May 20, 2025
Origin Energy has submitted an 800MWh wind-plus-storage project in New South Wales to Australia’s EPBC Act.
May 19, 2025
Elements Green has received grid connection approval from Powerlink Queensland and the AEMO for a 1.3GWh solar-plus-BESS site in Queensland.
May 16, 2025
In a contrasting double-header of news for the US energy storage ecosystem, Our Next Energy (ONE) has launched US-made cells, modules and BMS while BESS manufacturer American Energy Storage Innovations (AESI) is winding down its business.
May 16, 2025
Developer Elgin Energy has secured grid connection approval from AEMO for a 150MW solar-plus-storage site in Victoria.

Most Popular

Email Newsletter