Renewable energy investor Low Carbon has sold a 6GW portfolio of battery energy storage (BESS) projects in the Netherlands to S4 Energy, in what it said was “one of the largest ever investments in vital battery storage capacity in the renewables sector globally.”
S4 Energy is a specialist Dutch developer and operator of grid-scale energy storage and is majority-owned by global commodities merchant Castleton Commodities International (CCI).
Financial details were not disclosed. Low Carbon said the storage assets were developed by LC Energy, a joint venture between it and QING.
Company spokesperson Harry Padfield told BEST the batteries will be lithium-ion, exact chemistry to be confirmed, but LFP the “likely direction of travel”, and probably of 4-hour duration.
Low Carbon’s founder and chief executive, Roy Bedlow, said: “This is a huge moment in Europe’s energy transition. Low Carbon were one of the early pioneers in the Dutch renewables market and the delivery of one of the largest utility-scale battery storage portfolios in the market to CCI will act as a critical enabler for the Dutch grid once built.”
The Netherlands is aiming to have 39% of renewables in its total energy mix by 2030, but will miss its main 2030 climate goal unless it takes more action to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, government climate policy adviser PBL said last week.
Last month, power firm VPI, backed by the world’s largest energy trader Vitol, reportedly said it would invest €450 million ($487 million) over the next three to five years in 10 battery storage projects in Germany with a total capacity of 500MW/1GWh.
Low Carbon claims to be market leader position in the Dutch battery storage market and number one developer of UK solar energy.
