Ørsted has officially commenced construction on a Battery Energy Storage System (BESS) associated with the Hornsea 3 Offshore Wind Farm in the UK. This BESS project, featuring a capacity of 300MW/600MWh, is anticipated to be operational by the end of 2026. Ørsted, a leading Danish multinational energy company and prominent offshore wind developer, has stated that this installation will rank among the largest BESS projects in Europe.
The project was announced during a ground-breaking ceremony held this week. The BESS will be uniquely integrated with the onshore substation that connects the offshore wind farm to the national grid. Ørsted’s Hornsea 3 project is notable for having a total capacity of 2.9GW, making it the largest wind energy facility globally, with commercial operations scheduled to begin in 2027.
Beatrice d’Eufemia, the project manager, expressed enthusiasm about the initiative, highlighting its significance not only for Ørsted’s operations in the UK but also for the broader UK energy sector. She noted, “This project represents a significant opportunity to enhance the use of existing grid infrastructure in the UK, which faces challenges related to network congestion.”
Hornsea 3 was awarded a contract under the UK government’s Contracts for Difference (CfD) scheme in 2022, after which Ørsted made its final investment decision on the BESS project last summer. John Perkins, a senior principal at consultancy AFRY, previously pointed out that energy storage could alleviate the risks associated with negative pricing for projects that hold CfD contracts. He explained that current conditions could lead to losses in top-up payments if prices turn negative for six consecutive hours, with future changes allowing for a one-hour threshold.
Perkins also noted that negative pricing events occur approximately 100 hours annually in the UK, a figure that is on the rise. He emphasized that energy storage could mitigate market risks for developers by stabilizing imbalance costs, thereby reducing expenses related to forecast errors.
In addition to its UK projects, Ørsted is also making strides in the U.S. battery storage market. The company deployed its first 20MW standalone BESS project in the UK in 2019, followed by a 40MW battery system added to a solar PV plant in Texas in 2021. Recently, Ørsted and JP Morgan secured tax equity financing for the Eleven Mile Solar Center in Arizona, where they are co-locating a 300MW solar PV facility with a 300MW/1,200MWh BESS. Furthermore, Ørsted revealed plans for a 1GW pipeline of battery storage projects across several Midwestern states.
Earlier this year, Ørsted made a final investment decision on a 250MW/500MWh BESS project in Texas, which will be co-located with an existing solar asset. However, the company announced a 25% reduction in capital investment spending through 2030 after what CEO Rasmus Errboe described as a “challenging year for the renewables industry.”
This information was originally reported by Solar Power Portal and further elaborated by Energy-Storage.news.
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