German companies Energiequelle (EQ) and Enercon have announced their plans for a 10MW lithium-ion battery storage park in Feldheim, Germany.
The construction of the biggest battery storage park in Germany will start in June this year at EQ’s facility in Feldheim, 30 miles south of Berlin. The facility will have a storage capacity of 5MWh. The plan is to feed the system with the energy surplus of the local 72MW wind farm and participate more efficiently in the weekly tendering for primary control reserve.
Swedish energy supplier Vattenfall will feed the system to cover energy needs in times of high demand that cannot be covered by Feldheim itself and feed its own grid with power from the battery.
The renewable energy companies EQ and Enercon teamed up for the €13m ($17.5m) project co-financed by the European Union and regional funds. “The credit banks were very reluctant, that is why we are our behind our initial schedule”, said René Just, business unit manager of EQ.
At the moment, the German energy storage market is very unregulated. The amount of money the energy supplier will get per Megawatt and week varies between €2,300 and €3,000.
The final aim of EQ is to handle fluctuant of current without relying on brown coal. “You really have to know how the best mix of wind and solar energy looks like”, said Just and added: “One rule matches almost everywhere in Germany: either it’s sunny or it’s windy.”
Feldheim, a village of 128 inhabitants, is since 2010 fully energy self-sufficient, generating mostly energy from 43 wind turbines. The village also comprises a heat distribution centre with an installed load of 1,600 kW, a biogas plant and a woodchip incineration plant.