Eneco, an energy producer in the Netherlands, is relying on Tesla to power its biggest battery project to date, which will be used to “more efficiently balance Belgium’s electricity grid” and is expected to be operational in 2024.
Tesla Megapacks will help make up the massive battery energy storage system, or BESS, providing 50 MW/200MWh of storage, supplying the grid for up to four hours in the instance of a power outage or blackout.
“A growing number of wind turbines and solar panels are taking over much of the power production from existing fossil fuel power plants,” Eneco writes. “However, there is not always electricity from wind and solar, the demand is only partly controllable, and therefore it is important to have flexible storage.”
The Megapacks essentially act as a backup plan to the other sustainable options and will offer spare capacity when the grid needs to be kept in balance.
The project will be built in Ville-sur-Haine and be the largest project Eneco builds to date. Eneco is jointly owned by Mitsubishi Corp. and Chubu Electric Power at an 80/20 split, respectively.
BESS projects are becoming a widely popular way to remove regions of dependency on fossil fuels. Reducing CO2 emissions widely aligns with the climate goals of many countries, including those that are a part of the European Union, Belgium included.
Greenhouse gases will be reduced by at least 40 percent by 2030, and energy efficiency will need to be increased by at least 32.5 percent, while renewable energy shares need to be increased to at least 32 percent of the EU’s usage.
“We are strengthening our renewable energy activities in order to contribute to reducing CO2 emissions,” Tine Deheegher, Manager of Renewable Energy Solutions at Eneco, said. “In this regard, energy storage is very important to absorb the fluctuations of renewable energy. This project is an important step for us towards a CO2-neutral energy system in 2035.”
Tesla has expanded Megapack production to Shanghai and has also started operations at a new plant in California while shutting down manufacturing of the product in Nevada.
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