Wartsila said it will supply a 25-megawatt (MW) / 48-megawatt hour (MWh) energy storage system to GIGA Storage BV in the Netherlands to stabilise the electric grid.
This will be Wartsila’s first energy storage project in the Netherlands and it will be the country’s largest system to date. The system is expected to become operational in October 2022.
The Wartsila energy storage system, called the GIGA Buffalo battery, will be co-located with wind and solar assets at the Widnet smart grid, located at the Wageningen University & Research test centre in Lelystad.
Eneco, a leading energy provider in the Netherlands, will utilise the battery to make its energy services more sustainable and add more renewable energy on the grid. The energy storage will help to optimise the power system, regulate energy frequency and reliability on the grid and improve revenues.
“The Buffalo battery will help stabilise the Netherlands’ electricity grid and save a maximum of 23,000 tons of carbon dioxide emissions per year,” said Maarten Quist, COO, GIGA Storage. “Work with Wartsila to implement this landmark project will help us reach our goal of deploying 1.5 GW of energy storage in Europe by 2025.”
The Dutch government has set a goal to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 49 percent by 2030 and a 95 percent reduction by 2050.
Recent reports indicate that the Netherlands will need between 29 and 54-gigawatts (GW) of energy storage capacity by 2050.
“Wartsila sees a major opportunity and paramount need to help our customers increase energy storage deployment throughout Europe in order to realise a 100 percent renewable energy future,” said Pekka Tolonen, Director, Europe, Wartsila Energy.
The Buffalo battery will be the first large-scale energy storage project based on lithium iron phosphate (LFP) chemistry in Europe. The project will include Wartsila’s GridSolv Quantum, a compact energy storage system, as well as the GEMS Digital Energy Platform, Wartsila’s sophisticated energy management system.