IN BRIEF

GERMANY’S LARGEST BESS SITE UNDER CONSTRUCTION

Germany’s RWE has begun construction of one of Germany’s largest battery storage facilities at its power plant locations in Neurath and Hamm.

The facility will have a capacity of 220 MW and storage capacity of 235 MWh. A total of 690 lithium-ion battery blocks will be installed at the facility, involving an investment of approximately €140 million. The storage facility is providing a major boost to structural transformation in North Rhine-Westphalia. By making practical use of the existing locations and grid connections, we are making the traditional power plant sites of Hamm and Neurath important partners for renewables.

The BESS is scheduled to supply balancing energy to stabilise the electricity grid from the second half of 2024. This will entail the plant taking excess power from the electricity grid and feeding it back into the system when required, in order to maintain the required grid frequency. It will be deployed on the wholesale market.

US$70 MILLION UPGRADE FOR THE 600MW LONG ISLAND SOUND CABLE UNDERGROUND TRANSMISSION LINE

The New York Power Authority has completed a $70 million upgrade and modernization of its Long Island Sound Cable (Y-49), an underground transmission line that transverses the Long Island Sound from Westchester County to Nassau County, carrying up to 600 megawatts of electricity to Long Island.

The transmission project accelerates progress against New York State’s goal for 70% of the state’s electricity to come from renewable sources by 2030. It also advances the state’s path to realise a zero-emission grid by 2040 as outlined in the Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act (the Climate Act).

“With this comprehensive modernisation project completing on schedule and ahead of the peak demand summer season, the Long Island Sound Cable will help ensure reliable transmission of power to the nearly three million New Yorkers that make Long Island their home,” said Michael Balboni, NYPA trustee and Long Island resident.

The reconductoring project included the replacement and commissioning of the Nassau County section of the cable. .

The 26-mile, 345-kilovolt transmission line was placed into service in May 1991 and is part of a statewide network of approximately 1,400 circuit-miles of high-voltage transmission lines and associated substations owned by the Power Authority.

The Power Transmission & Distribution Business of Larsen & Toubro has achieved important milestones for the Power Elements and Grid packages of the world’s largest green hydrogen plant being built by NEOM Green Hydrogen Company.

Located at Oxagon in Saudi Arabia’s region of NEOM, NEOM Green Hydrogen Company (NGHC) is an equal joint-venture by ACWA Power, Air Products and NEOM.

NGHC is setting up a mega plant to produce green hydrogen at-scale for global export in the form of green ammonia with a total investment of USD 8.4 billion.

Supported by 23 local, regional, and international banking and financial institutions, the project has now achieved full financial close, and construction is moving forward.

A few quarters back, L&T received the nod to establish the Renewable Energy Generation, Storage and Grid infrastructure, from Air Products, the system-integrating EPC Contractor and exclusive off-taker of green ammonia to be produced from the project. The value of the packages awarded to L&T aggregate to US$ 2.779 billion. Since then, significant progress has been achieved in various activities including surveys, design & engineering, establishment of temporary facilities and procurement of long lead items.

Under these contracts, L&T will engineer, procure, and construct a 2.2 GWac PV Solar Plant, 1.65 GW Wind Generation Balance of Plant and a 400 MWh Battery Energy Storage System.

About:Energy has successfully closed a seed investment round with funding of £1.5m with participation from HighSage Ventures, Vireo Ventures, Rishi Khosla, Plug & Play Ventures, and Electric Revolution Ventures.

The funding will enable the battery software company, which started trading in 2022 after spinning out of the University of Birmingham and Imperial College London, to establish an independent laboratory.

The company is keen to expand itsteam, and accelerate industry adoption of its first product - a proprietary software platform called The Voltt, which was launched just two months ago.

The transition to electrification involves meeting the huge engineering challenge of building products with batteries and this requires accurate modelling of how a battery generates heat, fast charges, and ages over its lifetime.

To do this, the company’s founders will leverage existing world-leading research from Imperial College London and the University of Birmingham, which includes expertise in both electrochemistry and engineering.

The Voltt - says the company - is set to transform the battery value chain by offering a comprehensive library of commercially available cells and their attributes alongside advanced modelling capabilities.