German eco-energy cooperative takes stake in 9 MW battery storage

Hamburg, Germany-based green energy provider Green Planet Energy (formerly Greenpeace Energy) has acquired a 20 percent stake in a battery storage facility with nine megawatts of power and ten megawatt hours of capacity in Hassfurt, Bavaria. Other stakeholders include local utility Städtische Betriebe Hassfurt / Stadtwerk Hassfurt and Munich-based Vispiron Eco Investment, which specializes in solar plants, battery storage and charging infrastructure.
So far, the plant has been used by marketing flexibility – i.e., taking in or releasing energy as needed – in intraday power trading, as well as reducing grid usage costs at the transition from the distribution grid to the medium-voltage level and stabilizing the grid by compensating for reactive power. Green Planet Energy now wants to »expand this concept with an energy-transition mode of operation« and use the storage facility to compensate for fluctuations in power generation from wind and solar power plants. They want to »test under real conditions how we can integrate even more energy from wind and solar into our portfolio.«
The battery storage also serves to supply an electrolyzer operated since 2016 by Green Planet Energy and Stadtwerk Hassfurt in the joint venture Windgas Hassfurt GmbH. However, the electrolyzer primarily uses surpluses directly from the power grid for hydrogen production.
© PHOTON