Spain has awarded €165 million to seven pumped hydro storage projects totalling around 2.1GW/21GWh, while Portugal has set a target of 1.4GW of new pumped hydro capacity by 2040.
Return and Engie have agreed a long-term BESS toll in Spain while EnBW and Zelestra have finalised one in Italy, totalling 55MW and 300MW of capacity respectively.
Eni Storage Systems has broken ground on a gigafactory in Italy set to build LFP cells for energy storage applications, while Chinese firm Hithium has won an €80 million grant from the Spanish government for a battery and BESS plant there.
A lot of work and thought still needs to go into maximising the potential for co-location of solar and BESS technology, panellists at the Clean Power 2030 Summit said yesterday (30 June).
IPP Greenvolt has put a 99.8MW/288.6MWh BESS into commercial operation in Hungary, the largest in the country, while pipelines and projects have been progressed in Italy, France, Netherlands, Belgium and Spain.
There is a big gap in the industry’s understanding of the Spanish energy storage market, but that gap also creates opportunities for smart operators, writes Ignacio López Martín, chair of developer Capflex Energía.
Four large-scale BESS projects totalling a combined 2.2GWh of capacity in major EU markets can now proceed with construction following successful financing by owners OX2, R.Power, BRUC and Aukera.
The European Commission has approved a €9 billion (US$10.5 billion) scheme to shore up its energy capacity, which will be open to new and existing projects including energy storage.
