Microsoft’s project to equip a data centre with a ‘grid-interactive’ battery storage system shows “what is possible”.

Microsoft will be the latest big tech player to use battery storage at data centres which will provide grid flexibility services.

Mitsubishi Power is entering the European energy storage market with four BESS projects totalling 371MWh for ION Renewables in Ireland.

UK-headquartered asset manager Gresham House has partnered Irish developer Strategic Power Projects to develop a solar and storage pipeline with a combined capacity of over 1GW.

When the frequency of Ireland’s electricity grid dropped below normal operating range in May, two large-scale battery storage projects stepped in to help within 180 milliseconds, injecting power to help support and stabilise the network.

RWE Renewables’ first European battery energy storage system (BESS) – an 8.5MWh project – has gone live in Dublin, Ireland.

Norwegian utility Statkraft has completed the construction of its second large-scale battery storage project in the Republic of Ireland.

With the current tariff framework for energy storage in Ireland set to come to an end in April 2023, there is scepticism over the support that will follow.

Ireland’s first grid-scale battery system was commissioned at the beginning of 2020 but was followed just a few months later by another one 10 times larger. The opportunities for further development in the country appear huge, with a grid operator willing to recognise the role energy storage can play in balancing the network.

A 100MW battery storage facility in Co. Offaly in Ireland has this week been energised, having been developed as part of a partnership between local developer Lumcloon Energy and South Korea’s Hanwha Group.