Dutch energy company Eneco has announced plans to build a 50 MW/200 MWh battery energy storage facility in Wallonia, Belgium using Tesla Megapacks. The battery factory offers four hours of storage time.
Eneco said last week that it has obtained the permits, ordered the battery and started preliminary investigation work to get the project operational by the end of 2024. Located in Ville-sur-Haine in Wallonia, the four-hour battery power plant consists of 53 Tesla Megapacks and could become one of the largest battery projects in Belgium in terms of capacity. However, French energy company Engie recently applied for permission to deploy three battery plants with a cumulative capacity of 380 MW/1.52 GWh, which could surpass Eneco’s plant if delivered.
Having already deployed 128 onshore wind turbines as part of Belgium’s two largest offshore wind farms and nearly 400,000 solar panels in the country, the Dutch energy company is now looking to further strengthen green energy.
“We are strengthening our renewable energy operations to reduce CO2 emissions. In this regard, energy storage is very important to dampen the fluctuations of renewable energy. This project is an important step for us towards a CO2-neutral energy system in 2035,” said Tine Deheegher, Head of Renewable Energy Solutions at Eneco.
Eneco, controlled by Japan’s Mitsubishi, has used the project announcement to urge the Dutch government to encourage the deployment of energy storage in its backyard.
“With this project, Eneco takes another step towards a fully sustainable energy system in Belgium and implements the One Planet plan with the goal of being completely climate neutral by 2035,” the utility said, adding that the Netherlands needs 10 GW of batteries. by 2030, but it currently has only 300 MW installed. “We ask the Dutch government to learn from the policies of Belgium and Germany so that the Netherlands can truly achieve a climate-neutral electricity supply by 2035.”
