Utility and power firm LEAG has partnered with Chinese system integrator HyperStrong for a 400MW/1,600MWh BESS in Saxony, Germany.
The two companies have signed an engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) deal for the ‘GigaBattery Boxberg 400’ large-scale battery energy storage system (BESS) project.
It will be built at the former site of LEAG’s Boxberg gas plant, on a six-hectare area, with construction to begin immediately and completion targeted for 2026.
HyperStrong will provide engineering design and system integration, equipment supply and installation and ongoing support and maintenance, deploying its HyperBlock III, a 20-foot, 5MWh BESS unit.
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It follows on from LEAG enlisting US-headquartered system integrator Fluence last week for the larger, 1GW/4GWh GigaBattery Jänschwalde 1000 BESS, set for completion in 2027-28.
Both projects form part of the LEAG’s ‘GigawattFactory’ concept, which combines renewable energies, energy storage and hydrogen-capable gas-fired power plants.
Adi Roesch, CEO of the LEAG Group. “Jänschwalde in Brandenburg and Boxberg in Saxony will be the first GigaBattery sites of the future. Together with the expansion of our renewable electricity generation and planned hydrogen-capable gas-fired power plants, they form the core of the GigawattFactory.
The BESS projects will enable more integration of renewables in the wholesale energy market and provide grid stability services.
Germany is one of Europe’s busiest and most attractive grid-scale storage market thanks to a deep wholesale energy market and, for now, favourable regulatory regime. An exemption from charge and discharge grid fees exists for BESS that come online by August 2029, meaning most activity is focused on those projects: the picture beyond that date is less clear.
LEAG’s two recently-announced BESS projects are by far the largest in the country to be entering construction, a title which only just a month ago went to two projects that RWE and Eco Stor started building, of around c.700MWh each.
HyperStrong is China’s largest system integrator by BESS deployments, which places it in the top five globally, and has in the past few years expanded internationally. Last week it signed a 200GWh supply framework deal with lithium-ion OEM CATL.
