Dive Brief:
- Statoil has selected Younicos to install a 1 MW/1.3 MWh battery at a substation in Peterhead, Scotland, which will be the first energy storage system connected to the Hywind floating wind project.
- The storage project, named Batwind, will help optimize wind energy's use, storing and discharging energy back to the grid whenever it makes sense, and helping to illustrate how a battery can increase the value of the produced electricity.
- Batwind is a partnership between Statoil and Masdar. Hywind Scotland is operated by Statoil on behalf of partner Masdar, where Statoil holds an ownership share of 75% and Masdar 25%.
Dive Insight:
Energy storage is still moving into the mainstream of renewable energy projects, but its potential to help integrate intermittent energy is being embraced.
“As part of Statoil‘s strategy of gradually supplementing our oil and gas portfolio with profitable renewable energy, getting to understand energy storage is important," said Sebastian Bringsværd, head of Hywind Development in Statoil. "We believe battery storage will be key to future power systems, and with more renewables coming on, it will be crucial to handle storage to ensure stability and reliability in the energy supply."
Two Y.Cubes, 10-foot modular battery containers, will be placed at the Hywind Scotland onshore substation in Peterhead.
Bringsværd added that the Batwind project adds value by mitigating wind variability, making it a more reliable energy producer year-round.
In the United States, working with Tesla, Southern California Edison has installed two 10 MW battery systems with a combined output of 80 MWh at its Mira Loma substation about 60 miles east of Los Angeles. The batteries usually charge at night when the wind is blowing and energy prices are low and discharge during the day when they are bid into the frequency regulation market or the peak energy market.
