October 7 (Renewables Now) – Finnish technology group Wartsila (HEL:WRT1V) today announced the commissioning of a 24-MW/48-MWh energy storage system in the Netherlands, which is the largest so far in the country.
A ribbon-cutting ceremony for the project, called the GIGA Buffalo battery, was held on October 6 and attended by the Netherlands’ Minister for Climate and Energy Rob Jetten.
The battery is co-located with wind and solar assets at the Wageningen University & Research test centre in Lelystad. The developer of the project is GIGA Storage BV, while Dutch energy provider Eneco will lease the battery on a long-term basis, using it to smooth intermittency from renewables and regulate energy frequency.
For Wartsila this is the company’s first energy storage project in the Netherlands. The facility uses Wartsila’s Gridsolv Quantum energy storage system and its GEMS Digital Energy Platform.
“Battery storage is critical for the stabilisation of the country’s electric grid and imperative for reaching our clean energy goals,” said GIGA Storage chief execuitve Ruud Nijs.
The announcement cited reports, according to which the Netherlands will need between 29 GW and 54 GW of energy storage capacity by 2050 to support renewables growth as part of its decarbonisation goals.
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