Renewables developer Ørsted makes first foray into battery storage

Danish energy giant Ørsted has announced its first large-scale venture into battery storage at a site near Liverpool.

The company will build and operate the 20 megawatt (MW) project next month with a view to providing services to the National Grid by the end of the year.

The Carnegie Road battery site already has planning permission and a grid connection in place, following earlier work by Shawi Energi.

Ryan O’Keefe, Head of Energy Storage & Solar at Ørsted, said: “We’re excited to develop this project. As batteries have a very high frequency response capability we believe they’ll play an important role in providing services for the support of the stability of the power grid.”

The UK’s rapid transition to a low-carbon economy has meant many aging coal and gas plants going offline. At the same time, the growth in renewable energy has meant a need to manage electricity demand in a different way.
Energy storage technologies, such as batteries, are seen as a key component of the future energy grid, and new projects are coming online at a rapid rate.

Matthew Wright, Managing Director of Ørsted UK, commented that acquiring the plant is “an important step forward as it’s our first commercial-scale battery storage project.”

“We’re investing billions of pounds in the UK’s energy infrastructure and this is another significant investment that puts the UK at the heart of the global energy transition.”

Ørsted, formerly known as DONG Energy, operates 9 offshore wind farms in the UK with another 4 under construction. In 2017, it piloted a small 2MW battery project attached to the Burbo Bank wind farm in Liverpool Bay.

“The future energy system will be completely transformed from what it is today, with a smarter, more flexible grid, balancing supply and demand with new technology and cleaner energy generation. We want to continue to be at the forefront of this exciting shift towards a decarbonised energy system,” Wright added. 

Earlier this month, petroleum company BP also announced plans to trial a smaller battery project with Tesla at an onshore wind farm in the US.

 

Photo Credit: Neoen