Bigger projects, increased synergy with renewable energy generation, better evolved business models and a forward-thinking market design have contributed to the success of battery storage in the UK, with neighbouring Ireland also showing strong signs of rapid growth.

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.

Norwegian state-owned energy company Statkraft is to provide market access and trading optimisation for battery storage assets being developed by RWE in Ireland.

Updated 10 January 2021: “These longer-duration 2 hour systems highlight a growing recognition of battery based energy storage systems as not only super-fast but also super-robust infrastructure assets that can serve a broader range of capacity and system balancing needs for 20 years or more.”

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.

UK stock exchange-listed energy storage investment fund Gore Street Energy Storage Fund has applied to triple its capacity in the Republic of Ireland, up to a total of 180MW.

This article looks at the current status of each of these end-markets and where there are similarities and differences in how the markets have developed, along with future opportunities.

The island of Ireland’s battery storage pipeline has swelled to nearly 2.5GW, a new report unveiled by Energy-Storage.news publisher Solar Media can reveal. Here, the report’s author and analyst at Solar Media Lauren Cook dives into the detail and explores what’s driving that growth.

Ireland’s DS3 is a “really interesting market” but there is a lack of clarity of what the enduring arrangements for procuring DS3 look like, says Statkraft Market’s head of UK energy storage, Nick Heyward.

Marek Kubik, market director at Fluence, talks to Energy-Storage.news about the company’s work on the 11MW Kilathmoy battery storage project, delivered in tandem with wind giant Statkraft and Ireland’s grid operator EirGrid.