German energy giant says all new solar projects to have batteries included

German energy company EnBW has promised that all future solar projects will be paired with battery storage, with plans to expand the new standard to all future wind farms as well.

EnBW, a publicly traded energy company in the German state of Baden-Württemberg, made the announcement at the delivery of a battery storage system to be paired with a solar park under construction near Bruchsal, north of Karlsruhe.

The 4MW Bruchsal solar park is expected to begin operations in December before an official opening in the Northern Spring of 2024. The battery storage system paired with the solar park has a capacity of 3.5MWh.

EnBW expects that pairing all solar parks with battery storage systems will ensure they are used better, delivering more value from solar generation. This is the first time in Germany a company has committed to pairing battery storage with all future solar systems.

“This is a technologically important step for us to further increase the potential of renewable energies in the electricity supply,” said Michael Class, who heads the portfolio development department at EnBW

“The electricity generated can be fed into the grid more flexibly and better throughout the day.”

EnBW already operates several battery storage systems located at solar parks, which have helped deliver the data needed to make this decision.

“In addition to developments in the storage market, the findings from our previous battery storage projects have made this step possible,” said Class.

“The experiences gained were crucial for the development of standard models for the storage systems as well as for the definition of the various application scenarios.”

EnBW will also now begin examining the possibility of retrofitting existing wind farms with battery storage and making a similar pledge to deliver all future wind farms with battery storage systems.