Lithium-ion battery systems made by France’s Saft are to be installed in a remote region of southern Siberia as part of a “pioneering megawatt-scale” solar energy storage project.
Saft said it had signed a deal with the Hevel Group, Russia’s largest solar module manufacturer and photovoltaic project developer, to provide “a reliable and predictable supply of electricity in the Altai republic”.
A pilot project is being carried out to install a Saft Intensium Max lithium-ion system at the existing 10-megawatt Kosh-Agach solar plant in Altai.
If successful, the project will move on to “commercial implementation— planning to install several ESS units with a total power in excess of 20MW between 2020 and 2022”, the partners said.
Hevel already has four solar plants in operation in the region with a total capacity of 40 megawatts. The company said it intends to expand this to 140MW by 2020, as well as using energy storage systems at off-grid power plants in Siberia and Far East regions.
Hevel Group CEO Igor Shakhray said: “Integration of large-scale energy storage systems in solar power plants leads to the next stage of renewables in Russia, which has evolved into an industry with almost six gigawatts capacity. Such solutions are needed to increase flexibility and dispatchability of installed solar generation.”
Hervé Amossé (pictured), executive vice-president of Saft’s TTG division, said: “As the project develops into its commercial stages, we look forward to exploring the opportunities for key elements, such as power conversion systems, to be sourced within the Russia Federation.”
