Green light for 220 MW battery storage in NRW

RWE continues to expand its battery storage technology business. The company has finalised its investment decision for a 220 megawatt (MW) battery storage project in Germany. A total of 690 lithium-ion batteries blocks are to be installed at the sites of RWE’s power plants in Neurath and Hamm in North Rhine-Westphalia. The total investment amounts to approximately 140 million euros. Subject to the pending building permit, construction is scheduled to start in 2023, with commissioning planned for 2024.

The new system is designed to react within seconds, delivering the required output for over an hour. This allows the system to contribute to the efficient stabilisation of the grid with a reliable power supply. The unique feature of the system is that the new battery is networked virtually with RWE’s German power plants. This enables optimal management in terms of which unit efficiently provides balancing energy, either individually or as a group, and when.

RWE plans to implement this storage project at existing power plants to maximise the synergy effects across technologies. The batteries can be installed in the areas that are already available, utilising existing grid infrastructure to feed energy in and out. In Neurath, batteries with a total capacity of 80 MW are to be installed on an area of around 7,000 m², which is the equivalent of about one football pitch. And batteries with a total capacity of 140 MW are to be installed in Hamm at the Westfalen power plant, covering an area of 14,000 m². The company plans to use brand new lithium-ion batteries which are installed in cabinet form, and delivered as prefabricated modules.

Battery storage projects at RWE

RWE currently operates a total installed battery storage capacity of approximately 150 MW (160 MWh) and is executing battery storage projects of more than 800 MW (1,800 MWh) worldwide. RWE has the ambition to build three gigawatts of batteries by 2030. This year, RWE commissioned a battery storage system in Ireland of 60MW, and a 40MW battery storage system coupled with a solar PV plant in Georgia, USA.

In Germany, RWE is currently commissioning a 117MW project that is virtually connected to the run-of-river hydropower plants on the Moselle River. In its other projects, RWE makes use of storage systems from used electric car batteries (“second life” batteries) or liquid batteries known as RedOx flow systems.