The development of enormous and small battery shops is booming in Germany. The methods will help cut back electrical energy costs. However, the batteries come primarily from Chinese producers as of late. This might elevate a brand new dialogue concerning the safety of the vital infrastructure.
The solar shines on Schleswig-Holstein from morning to night. At the start of spring, it’s one in all as of late on which the brand new storage facility in the course of the farm nation of the municipality of Bollingstedt will in future be capable to rain a wealthy harvest of favorable electrical energy – particularly at any time when the wind farms additionally ship quite a lot of power within the north. North of Schleswig, not removed from the A7 motorway, the Bavarian firm Eco Stor has constructed up one of many largest battery shops in Germany, at present the most important within the north. On an space of 1.2 hectares there are 64 white containers with batteries in a number of rows. The needed inverter, transformers and a substation are additionally put in right here to attach the reminiscence to the 110,000-volt high-voltage community.
The aggregates already buzz and hum within the check operation. Technicians take out values right here and there on the particular person modules. The reminiscence makes 103 megawatts, the system can hand over the saved electrical energy for somewhat greater than two hours, and 238 megawatt hours then get again into the web. These dimensions are new to the German electrical energy market. They are wanted to seize the rising quantities of wind and solar energy even when they don’t seem to be used up- and to present them again when the renewable energies present much less electrical energy.
The development of economic battery storage is booming in Germany, particularly the place, like within the north, quite a lot of electrical energy is generated with wind generators and photo voltaic methods, additionally for the necessity in Hamburg. Energy suppliers similar to Vattenfall or Eon are coming into this market, and new firms similar to Eco Stor, which was based in 2021. “Significant reasons for this growing market are falling prices for the batteries and volatility on the electricity exchange due to the high expansion of photovoltaics and wind energy,” says Thomas Jacobsen, undertaking engineer at Eco Stor, who heads the commissioning of the ability in Bollingstedt. The reminiscence will quickly go surfing. Eco Stor desires to activate an an identical system in spring 2026 at Schleswig-Schuby. Eco Stor shops the electrical energy when it’s low cost on the electrical energy exchange-for instance with excessive solar energy technology a day or with quite a lot of wind energy at night-and sells the power by an trade supplier when it turns into scarce and the value will increase.
The growth of the massive storage – and likewise the smaller battery reminiscence for personal households – has lots to do with the worldwide trip of electromobility. With the rising battery capacities, costs lower. Manufacturers from China and South Korea function the most important works for contemporary e-car batteries. The batteries for the system in Bollingstedt come from the Chinese producer BYD – the corporate has been producing batteries for a very long time earlier than it additionally rose to one of many main producers of electrical automobiles in the present day. Chinese technicians are on the development web site and accompany the commissioning of the system. “These container storage modules were manufactured at BYD in China and brought here over the port of Hamburg,” says Jacobsen. “The modules installed here differ from the battery stores in electric cars. These modules here are heavier, they are more optimized for performance and less on the weight.” For electrical automobiles, it relies upon, for instance, to rapidly present power when accelerating. Cordless financial savings, alternatively, are extra optimized for lengthy -term charging and unloading.
However, the sturdy presence particularly Chinese producers within the batteries for big storage might additionally lead to a brand new dialogue concerning the safety of the vital infrastructure. The Hansewerk firm, based mostly in Quickborn, operates the ability grid in Schleswig-Holstein, as much as the high-voltage stage of 110,000 volts. Hansewerk, which majority belongs to the Eon power group, integrates 1000’s of wind and solar energy crops into its network- and likewise increasingly more battery shops. “The dimensions of the battery storage market are remarkable,” says expertise board member Benjamin notices within the Hansewerk headquarters. “Today around twelve gigawatts from renewable energies-wind power and solar power systems-are installed on the power grid of the Hanseatic Service subsidiary Schleswig-Holstein Netz. The tips for consumption are around two gigawatts. At the same time, we have applications for the construction of new battery large storage with a total output of 13 gigawatt.” These 13 gigawatts of undertaking demand within the Hansewerk catchment space alone correspond to round 130 extra battery shops within the measurement of the Bollingstedt facility.
In the top, not all of those tasks are realized ultimately. A prerequisite for the development of a industrial battery park is entry to the excessive -voltage community and an acceptable property. Large battery shops want quite a lot of house – due to the required cooling and hearth safety, they don’t seem to be constructed up. The variety of tasks nonetheless will increase. “A few years ago, battery stores did not play a major role in the energy system,” says notification. Today’s technology of enormous battery shops is primarily about “that their operators use the price fluctuations on the electricity market – to store electricity at low prices and sell it with increasing prices. Positive effect for customers: Extreme price outlets are steamed.” In lots of the related enterprise fashions, the logic of a big battery storage lies in charging the batteries twice a day and returning the electrical energy twice: “With our electricity network, five larger battery stores are currently connected with services between five and 100 megawatts. Two other large battery stores are to be connected this year.”
However, battery storage alone can not resolve the issue of synchronizing a quickly rising electrical energy requirement with a fluctuating “power harvest” from wind and photo voltaic power. This requires the growth of the ability grid: “The necessary, increasing network capacity cannot replace memory,” says not. “We are expanding our network quickly, and by 2030 it should be able to absorb 30 gigawatts from renewable energies, we invest several hundred million euros every year.”
Hydrogen can be used – because the regeneratively manufactured power supply with the best storage capability. Electrolysis is damaged down into its elements of hydrogen and oxygen. If this occurs with electrical energy from renewable sources, one speaks of “green” hydrogen. The union of oxygen and hydrogen in gasoline cells in flip beneficial properties electrical energy and warmth. “In the future, hydrogen and its derivatives will be needed, for example, if the renewable energies cannot deliver enough electricity for a long time, for example in a so -called dark low,” says notification. “Then you need, green ‘hydrogen or” inexperienced “ammonia, for example as fuel for power plants that serve as a back-up.” In the type of hydrogen, much more power may be saved than in batteries. However, the conversion losses from electrical energy to electrolysis to hydrogen and its later power use are additionally considerably increased than within the insertion and exhaustion of electrical energy in batteries. Around 90 p.c of the electrical energy power are preserved in a run in a battery park like in Bollingstedt.
Large power suppliers have additionally acknowledged the benefits of battery parks. The Energy Group Vattenfall desires to construct a big battery storage with as much as 400 megawatts of energy on the disused Krümmel nuclear energy plant close to Geesthacht. Preussenelekehr, which belongs to Eon, even plans a battery reminiscence with 800 megawatts of energy on the disused Brokdorf nuclear energy plant. With 1600 megawatt hours of electrical energy, it might provide 1.5 million households with electrical energy for 2 hours. But it’s not about supplying sure shoppers, however about community stability and electrical energy costs.
With its areas and the community connection, the Krümmel location affords “very good prerequisites for the construction of a battery storage. The reuse of former generation locations, wherever possible, is absolutely in the interests of the energy transition,” says a Vattenfall spokesman. The additional plans for the reminiscence are “depending on various factors that we now want to clarify in detail as part of the plan procedure”. For the reminiscence, Vattenfall calculates with an funding “in three -digit millions of millions”.
Olaf Preuss is the enterprise reporter of the world and world on Sunday for Hamburg and Northern Germany. The power trade is one in all its most important matters.
https://www.welt.de/regionales/hamburg/article255795770/Batterie-Grossspeicher-Die-stille-Reserve-am-Netz.html