BOLLINGSTEDT (dpa-AFX) - One of Germany's largest battery storage facilities is officially online. According to the operator, the storage facility in Bollingstedt (Schleswig-Flensburg district) uses surplus production from wind and photovoltaics and feeds the renewable electricity back into the SH-Netz power grid during morning and evening peak demand periods.
It can theoretically supply up to 170,000 multi-person households with electricity from renewable energies for two hours and has a capacity of 103.5 megawatts (MW) and a storage capacity of 238 megawatt hours (MWh).
Storage uses surplus production from wind and photovoltaics
According to the information provided, the plant, which was built by German-Norwegian energy storage specialist Eco Stor and EPW GmbH, consists of 64 containers with lithium-ion batteries and 32 containers for inverters and transformers.
"With storage facilities like the one here in Bollingstedt, we can continue to drive forward the energy transition at a rapid pace," said Schleswig-Holstein's Minister for Energy Transition, Tobias Goldschmidt. This is because storage systems are truly versatile: "They compensate for natural fluctuations in solar and wind energy, stabilize the grids, reduce electricity prices, and ensure more green electricity in our grids."
Eco-Stor CEO Georg Gallmetzer said that the battery storage facility in Bollingstedt marks the start of the storage revolution. "We now have the technology to shift valuable solar power to the evening hours, dampen prices, and further reduce electricity from gas and coal."
More large-scale storage facilities are to follow, including in the region
Further large-scale storage facilities are planned. In Bollingstedt's neighboring municipality of Schuby, Eco Stor is currently building a facility similar in size to the one in Bollingstedt. According to earlier statements, the company has a total of more than two gigawatt hours in the pipeline.
Other companies are also building large-scale storage facilities: For example, energy company EnBW plans to build a battery storage facility with a capacity of 100 megawatt hours at its Marbach site (Ludwigsburg district), according to earlier statements. It is scheduled to go online at the end of the year.
According to the Battery Charts published by RWTH Aachen University, large-scale storage facilities in Germany currently have a capacity of 2.7 gigawatt hours (GWh). With commercial and home storage systems, the figure rises to 20.3 GWh. Home storage systems account for the largest share with 16.7 GWh./gyd/DP/stw
