The government of Estonia has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) for what would be the Eastern European country’s first pumped hydro energy storage (PHES) facility.
AST, the transmission system operator (TSO) of Latvia, has selected Rolls-Royce Solutions for two battery energy storage system (BESS) projects totalling 80MW of power and 160MWh of capacity.
Eesti Energi has completed the procurement for its 26.5MW/51MWh BESS, the first of that scale in Estonia, with LG Energy Solution among the successful parties.
Bids have been received by Latvia’s grid operator AST for an 80MW/160MWh BESS project while developers Corsica Sole and Everon will build a 200MW system in Estonia, as the Baltic region prepares to decouple from Russia’s electricity system in 2025.
The Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) energy storage market is in its infancy but has the potential to leapfrog more developed markets with Poland in a leading position, said executives from Fluence.
The energy storage market in Poland is “not an undersupplied one”, has higher financing costs and there is a two-year window in which you need to get in to capitalise on the opportunities, said renewable energy developer and IPP Aquila Clean Energy.
A state agency in Estonia has provided €5.2 million (US$5.7 million) in grants for 10 energy storage projects, including a 4MW/8MWh battery storage project from utility Eesti Energia.
Construction on a 550MW/6GWh pumped hydro energy storage project in Estonia will begin in summer 2024 after it was given the green light by regulators.
