HARTEL, THE NETHERLANDS, June 06, 2019: The largest wind-powered battery storage system in the Netherlands will be officially unveiled tomorrow along the Hartel canal, near the port of Rotterdam. In a country where windmill technologies were once pioneered to reclaim land from the sea, Dutch innovators are today pioneering systems that harness the region’s plentiful wind resources to power a 21st century energy system that is both stable and clean. The 10MW mega battery in Hartel is connected to a 24MW wind farm to create a fully renewables-based power plant that relies on smart technologies to support the broader energy grid. Spectral, a smart-grid technology company commissioned by leading Dutch sustainable energy provider Greenchoice, has developed the mission-critical control systems that enable the wind farm/battery combination to help serve as the backbone of a future energy system in which fossil fuels no longer have a role.
Maurice Koenen, manager of sourcing and portfolio management at Greenchoice, says: “Along the Hartel canal we have 8 wind turbines which together produce an average of 68 GWh of green electricity per year. When it’s very windy, there is a lot of supply, and when there is insufficient demand in those time periods, the wind turbines might have to be turned down in order to prevent oversupply in the system. Using the batteries, we can keep the wind turbines running to prevent sustainable energy from being wasted. The wind energy can be stored in the batteries and delivered […]