| Energy storage
Foresight’s first pumped storage hydro investment
Foresight Energy Infrastructure Partners (FEIP) has announced its first investment in pumped storage hydro (PSH). Following a deal reached with landowner Buccleuch, it will invest in a planned 1600 MWh/210 MW PSH project to be sited at the disused 1547 acre Glenmuckloch opencast coal mine near Kirkconnel, Scotland. It will be co-located with a 33.6 MW (8 x 4.2 MW) wind farm.
The facility, employing two 105 MW reversible hydro-turbines, and providing much needed long-duration storage, would be the sixth PSH plant to be constructed in the UK. Foresight used the following advisers in the transaction: Aecom (technical); Aurora (revenue); Osborne Clark & Harper McLeod (legal); PwC (tax); Marsh (insurance); Amberside Advisors (financial modelling).
Foresight is leasing the site from Buccleuch, with the aim of bringing the long-planned project to fruition.
Right: Glenmuckloch open cast coal mine site (photo: Buccleuch)
Big Buffalo battery begins operation
GIGA Buffalo, at 25 MW/48 MWh, the largest battery to date in the Netherlands, has been commissioned.
The project was developed by GIGA Storage BV. Other participants included: Eneco (renter of the battery capacity, via a long-term lease with GIGA Storage); Wärtsilä (battery technology supplier); Equans (technical services provider); K. Dekker (construction contractor); Smartgrid Oost Flevoland (the local network); Liander (grid operator); plus Triodos Energy Transition Europe Fund and Rabobank (investors and financiers). “Our goal is to contribute to switching off gas and coal-fired power plants faster,”says Ruud Nijs, CEO of
GIGA Storage, which has aspirations to become the major energy storage player in Europe. The Buffalo battery is installed at the Wageningen University & Research (WUR) test centre in Lelystad and is connected to and part of Smart Grid Oost Flevoland. It is directly connected to the Mammoethtocht and Neushoorntocht wind farms.
Buffalo is Wärtsilä’s first energy storage project in the Netherlands and employs the Finnish company’s Gridsolv Quantum energy storage system, with LFP (lithium ferro-phosphate) battery technology, plus its GEMS control and asset optimisation software platform, employing data
analytics and AI. GIGA Buffalo also has a ‘Service+ GAP’ maintenance agreement with Wärtsilä, which includes performance guarantees. The Buffalo battery is located next to the 12 MW/7.5 MWh Rhino battery, also a GIGA Storage project. This was the most powerful battery in the Netherlands when it was completed in 2020. It employs Lithium NMC (nickel manganese cobalt oxide) battery technology, supplied by NEC. The Dutch government has set a goal of reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 49% by 2030 and 95% by 2050, with recent reports indicating that between 29 and 54 GW of energy storage capacity will be needed by 2050.
Above: Big batteries in the Netherlands
www.modernpowersystems.com | November/December 2022 | 35
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