Czech solar PV company the Solar Global group is to build a 10MWh battery storage facility in the southeast of the country.
Solar Global founder Vitezslav Skopal said the facility, to be built in Ochoz, “will become the largest in Central and Eastern Europe”.
Electrical energy stored in the battery will be used to manage grid disturbances or spikes in energy demand, Skopal said. “It will be able to supply power to 20,000 homes for one hour in the event of a power failure.”
Local media reports have put the cost of the project at an estimated EUR7.7 million ($9m). Solar Global declined to confirm the figure.
Solar Global CEO František Smolka said earlier this year energy storage would “play a crucial role in the large scale roll-out of renewable energy” in the region.
The company, founded in 2009, is building and maintaining PV power plants, PV rooftop systems and trades electricity through its various subsidiaries including Solar Global Service, which it said currently services 62 solar PV plants with a total capacity of more than 100MW.
Last September, Solar Global selected Dutch firm Alfen to supply a 1MW energy storage system connected to its Prakšice solar PV farm in the Czech Republic.
The executive director of the Czech Republic’s Association for Energy Storage and Batteries (AKU-BAT CZ) Jan Fousek, who is also a director of Solar Global, has reportedly called for changes to domestic laws to give greater financial incentives for the construction of large-scale battery projects— which he said should have a “similar status to energy-saving power plants”.
