RWE prioritises storage
23 March 2023RWE reports that “Germany’s first megabattery” is complete. It has a capacity of 117 MW (128 MWh), and consists of 420 blocks of lithium-ion batteries located at two power plant sites, with 49 MWh at Lingen (Lower Saxony) and 79 MWh at Werne (North Rhine-Westphalia), “intelligently linked” to RWE’s run- of-river power plants on the Moselle River.
Building on extensive in-house experience with energy storage systems, RWE says it “took exclusive control of project planning, modelling, system integration and commissioning.”
At the end of 2022, RWE announced a positive investment decision for a new virtually networked 220 MW (235 MWh) battery storage project in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany, with 80 MW at Neurath and 140 MW at Hamm. Subject to permitting, construction is scheduled to start in 2023 and commissioning is planned for 2024.
RWE says these new battery systems will be “networked virtually” with its German power plants. As with Lingen/Werne, RWE is providing detailed project design, modelling, system integration and commissioning for Neurath/Hamm.
As well as Germany, RWE is developing, building, and operating battery storage systems elsewhere in Europe, Australia, and the USA. It currently has about 270 MW (280 MWh) in operation, and completion is underway on about 700 MW (1700 MWh). It aims to have about 3 GW of storage capacity in operation worldwide by 2030.
In the course of 2022, RWE commissioned a battery storage system in Ireland of 60 MW, and a 40 MW battery storage system coupled with PV in Georgia, USA.
RWE has installed a solar plant with integrated battery storage at the site of its Inden opencast lignite mine, with two similar plants now under construction at its Garzweiler mine.
In its tender bid for the Hollandse Kust West offshore wind farm, RWE included a plan for a large integrated battery.
In other projects, RWE is employing RedOx flow systems as well as used EV batteries.
It is for example co-operating with VDL Bus & Coach on a project in the Netherlands called Anubis, in which 43 lithium-ion batteries are to be given a “second life” after intensive use in VDL-made electric buses. The batteries are be employed in an energy storage facility to be located at the Moerdijk power plant site, which is expected to become operational in 2023.
RWE’s first battery installation of this kind went into operation in 2021. It consists of used lithium- ion batteries from Audi employed in a battery energy storage facility at the Herdecke pumped storage plant, North Rhine-Westphalia.
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