Statoil has placed an order with battery firm Younicos for the delivery of a 1 MW/1.3 MWh energy storage system for the 30 MW Hywind floating offshore wind farm in Scotland.
The storage project, known as Batwind, will be the world’s first battery energy storage system connected to a floating wind farm, and will be operational from Q2 2018, Statoil said. It will play a key role in helping Statoil to gain a better understanding of energy storage, the firm said.
“With more renewables coming into production it will be crucial to handle storage to ensure predictable energy supply in periods without wind or sun,” said head of Hywind Development in Statoil, Sebastian Bringsværd. “Batwind has the potential to add value by mitigating periods without wind – and by that making wind a more reliable energy producer year around. This could expand the use and market for wind and renewables in the future.”
The two 3 m modular battery containers will be placed at the Hywind Scotland onshore substation in Peterhead, Scotland. It will be equipped with an advanced control system that determines when the battery is charged and discharged.
The system will help Statoil, and its partner in the project, Masdar, to understand how a battery can help increase the value of the produced electricity and how it can work together with the wind farm and the grid.
“Through Batwind we are including software – or a brain if you like – on top of the battery to ensure that the battery behaves the way we want it to behave,” said Bringsværd. “We want the battery to automatically know when to hold back and store electricity, and when to send it out to the grid.
“Battery energy storage systems have existed in the market for several years and are rapidly developing. However, there is limited knowledge of how to make a battery act based on dynamic information, in order to maximize value of renewable energy.”
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