“Battery tsunami:” Projects totalling 226 GW seek grid connection approval in Germany

Large-scale battery projects with a combined capacity of 226 gigawatts (GW) seek to be connected to Germany’s transmission grid, fanning industry speculation that the country’s electricity system could be facing a “battery tsunami,” reports pv magazine.

Transmission grid operators had received 650 connection requests for large battery storage systems by the start of January, but many of these are at an early planning stage, complicating predictions about how many will be realised, according to the article. The latest figures represent an increase of around 40 percent versus three months earlier, when requests totalled only around 161 GW.

The grid storage boom is driven mainly by rapidly dropping battery prices and the possibility of using them for profiting from electricity price fluctuations.

The implications for Germany’s electricity system could be huge: even if only half the projects are realised, the storage capacity could supply more than 30 million households for a day, back-of-the-envelope calculations suggest.

Germany’s rapidly rising share of weather-dependent renewable energy makes the country a testbed for storage technologies, to enable its use when there is no sun or wind.

Only 262 battery storage systems with a capacity exceeding one megawatt and a total capacity of around 1.75 GW were in operation in Germany at the start of the year, according to grid agency data, pv magazine reported.

Applications for future projects therefore exceed systems currently operating by a factor of around 130. The official register only lists 287 large-scale storage projects, with almost 2.4 GW, as being in the planning phase.

Most of the applications state that project commissioning for the storage facilities is planned before 2030, with some even as early as 2025, operators said. They said the total figure could contain double counting, as some developers have handed in requests for several locations for an identically designed project in order to secure permission, which is granted on a “first come, first serve” basis.

Total large-scale battery applications in Germany even far exceed the figure of 226 GW, as distribution grid operators are also registering many connection requests for large battery storage systems, the article said.

Operators that are part of energy company E.ON have alone received more than 2,000 enquiries totalling almost 100 GW. Other distribution grid operators also reported hundreds of applications.

This article was originally published on Clean Energy Wire. Republished here with permission. Read the original version here.