A flurry of major grid-scale BESS news in Finland, the Netherlands, Germany and France about projects that could all be described as the largest in those countries.
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- Power solutions firm Merus Power has completed what it claimed is the largest BESS online in Finland
- Construction has started on a 90MW BESS in the Netherlands, larger than anything online there today
- Eco Stor has enlisted optimisers for a 103MW/238MWh project in Germany, which could be the largest in the country when it comes online in January
- Alpiq has acquired a 100MW/200MWh BESS in France from Harmony Energy, the joint-largest project in the country
Merus Power completes 30MW/36MWh Finland BESS
Power solutions firm Merus Power has completed a 30MW/36MWh battery energy storage system (BESS) in Lempäälä, Finland, for developer and fund manager Taaleri Energia.
Merus provided engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) services for the project including development and commissioning. The firm claimed it is the largest BESS operating in the Finnish electricity markets today.
In an interview at the Energy Storage Summit 2023 in London last year, executives from Merus explained that the energy storage market in Finland is being driven by a big buildout of wind power and pumped hydro’s limitations in providing ancillary services. At the following year’s event, the firm discussed a similar-sized project with another customer, private equity firm Ardian (Premium access).
Though the 36MWh BESS might be the largest online today, numerous larger ones are coming soon, including a 30MW/60MWh project from United Bankers, a 50MW/110MWh project from L&G NTR fund, a 50MW/50MWh project from Aquila Clean Energy EMEA and a 56.4MW/112.9MWh project from Neoen.
Construction begins on 90MW project in the Netherlands
Local politicians and company executives have marked the start of construction on a 90MW BESS project in central Netherlands.
The ‘Dronter Energie Opslag’ (Dronter Energy Storage) project in Dronten, Eastern Flevoland, will have a power rating of 90MW though the announcement, on the project site, did not reveal the energy storage capacity.
It will connect to a Closed Distribution System (CDS) which is also connected to a nearby large wind farm and solar plant, meaning the BESS will be able to help reduce curtailment during peak generation periods. It will also provide balancing services to transmission system operator (TSO) TenneT.
The project is a joint venture between holding company FlevoBESS, investor GreenPowerBank Dronten and green energy utility Pure Energie. Construction will take a year for commissioning in 2026.
Most large-scale BESS projects in the Netherlands have been 4-hour systems, as a big part of the revenue stack is balancing the system and trading energy. The site’s size of six hectares – only three being are being built on in the first phase – means this project could eventually be a 4-hour system too (totalling 360MWh).
The Dutch energy storage market has picked up significantly in the past year, with gigawatt-scale projects progressing after several years of limbo. Most recently commodities trader Castleton, via its S4 subsidiary, acquired a 6GW portfolio from developer Low Carbon.
Eco Stor enlists optimisers for first major Germany project
BESS developer and EPC firm has partnered with flexibility provider Entelios and optimiser enspired, for the commercialisation of its Eco Power One BESS project in Schleswig-Holstein, Germany.
The 103.5MW/238.5MWh BESS is the first of a series of large-scale projects that Eco Stor is building in Germany, and is set to come online in January 2025 and will be among, if not the largest BESS in the country.
Exactly how the partnership between enspired and Entelios will work is not clear. Both describe themselves as leading provides of flexibility services in energy markets with the ability to maximise revenues for projects.
Announced optimisation deals in Germany’s energy storage market have been relatively few and far between, but this has started to pick up. Last week saw developer-operator Aquila Clean Energy EMEA enlist Entrix for two projects totalling 212MWh in Germany, while in July vehicle-to-grid (V2G) specialist The Mobility House announced it was bringing its optimisation expertise into the large-scale BESS market in the country.
Eco Stor was initially just an engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) and system integrator but has since moved into developing and owning its own large-scale projects, though still deploys them using its own proprietary BESS layout and configuration. A render of Eco Power One is below.
Alpiq buys France BESS from Harmony Energy
In our final big news item for this piece, Switzerland-based IPP Alpiq has acquired a 100MW/200MWh BESS project in France from developer Harmony Energy.
The project in Oise, north of Paris, will come online in Autumn 2026. It is separate to a 100MW/200MWh BESS that UK-based Harmony Energy announced it was building in France a few months ago, as that project is in Nantes Saint-Nazaire Harbour, western France. Both projects are far larger than any other BESS online in France today.
Note that Alpiq also recently ordered a 30MW/36MWh BESS from Merus Power in Finland in July, with international expansion clearly on the cards for the firm.
