BW ESS and Zelos Energy Developments have established a partnership in Germany to develop a large-scale battery energy storage system (BESS) project with a capacity of up to 1.5 GW. Based in Zurich, BW ESS is collaborating with the Berlin-based energy storage developer Zelos to create plans for this significant project in northern and eastern Germany. The targeted areas for development are located within the operational zone of 50Hertz, a transmission system operator (TSO) managing a 220 kV and 380 kV transmission network in these regions.
BW ESS aims to focus its efforts on the states of Meclemburg-Western Pomerania and Saxony-Anhalt, with the goal of reaching construction readiness between 2025 and 2027. In February of this year, BW ESS also announced a plan to add 1 GW of battery storage capacity in southern Germany in collaboration with the developer MIRAI Power. Similar to the current agreement, BW ESS will concentrate on engineering design and construction, global procurement, revenue assurance, and project financing, while Zelos Energy Developments will handle land acquisition, grid integration, and permitting.
This initiative represents the latest step in Germany’s ongoing expansion of battery energy storage systems (BESS). As the largest electricity market in Europe, Germany is steadily increasing the scale of its grid-connected battery storage systems to compensate for the underdevelopment of smaller battery systems. To mitigate high electricity prices and enhance security, the number of small storage systems in Germany has surged. According to the latest data from the German Solar Industry Association (BSW-Solar), by the end of 2024, approximately 19 GWh of small storage systems are expected to be installed, with 15.4 GWh originating from residential BESS. BSW-Solar further predicts that large-scale battery storage capacity could quintuple over the next two years, reaching 7 GWh, with ongoing constructions potentially exceeding this figure.
Despite this, a surge in grid-scale BESS is underway: by early 2025, requests for grid connections from large storage systems are expected to total around 340 GW. BW ESS has indicated that its operational BESS projects currently exceed 500 MWh, with projects under construction totaling over 1 GWh and projects in development approaching 7 GW.
Original article by NenPower, If reposted, please credit the source: https://nenpower.com/blog/bw-ess-and-zelos-partner-to-develop-1-5-gw-battery-storage-project-in-germany/
