RWE completes 117 MW/128 MWh battery project in Germany

German power group RWE AG (ETR:RWE) has completed the construction of a battery system with a total capacity of 117 MW/128 MWh at the sites of two of its power plants in Germany to help stabilise the power grid.

The system consists of a total of 420 blocks of lithium-ion batteries installed at RWE's sites in Lingen, Lower Saxony, and Werne, North Rhine-Westphalia. The batteries in Lingen have a capacity of 49 MWh and those in Werne -- 79 MWh.

The investment in the project totals EUR 50 million (USD 53.48m), RWE said on Monday.

The batteries at the two sites will be virtually connected to RWE's run-of-river hydropower plants along the Moselle River which will raise the total capacity of power available for grid stabilisation in this system by up to 15%.

The battery storage system is now being tested with commercial operation planned to begin in the next few days.

The completion of the project comes shortly after RWE took an investment decision for a new virtually networked 220 MW/235 MWh battery storage system in Neurath and Hamm, North Rhine-Westphalia. In December, the company also powered up a 14.4-MWp solar plant with integrated battery storage of 9.6 MWh at the site of the Inden opencast lignite mine and two similar sites are currently under construction at the Garzweiler mine.

Overall, the Essen-based power major seeks to install 3 GW of storage capacity globally by 2030.

(EUR 1 = USD 1.070)

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