4C Offshore Empowering Intelligence

Batwind battery begins work

4C Offshore | Matthew White
By: Matthew White 27/06/2018 Equinor
EquinorEquinor has installed the world's first battery, known as Batwind, for the offshore wind industry. With Batwind in operation, it will be possible to store energy produced from an offshore wind farm.

The battery storage solution was presented in Peterhead, Scotland by Batwind partners Equinor and Masdar.

Electricity produced at the floating offshore wind farm Hywind Scotland, located 25km off the coast of Peterhead, will be transported via cables to an onshore substation where the 1MW batteries are placed and connected to the grid.

As the wind is not always blowing, Equinor expect energy storage technologies like batteries, are expected to become increasingly important to secure grid stability.

"The variability of renewable energy can to a certain extent be managed by the grid. But to make renewable energy more competitive and integrate even more renewables to the grid, we will need to find new, smart solutions for energy storage to provide firm power. How to do this in a smart and value creating way is what we are aiming to learn from Batwind," says Sebastian Bringsvaerd, Development Manager for Hywind and Batwind.

According to a recent report by the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA), the installed costs of battery storage systems could fall by two-thirds (66%) by 2030.

"While there are many energy storage products and solutions in the market, the battery software solutions are less developed. We want to teach the battery when to hold back and store electricity, and when send power to the grid, thus increasing value of the power. It will be really exciting to see how we can develop the combined battery and software solution and make Batwind as smart as possible,"
says Bringsvaerd.

"Digitalisation is a key driver here. The more we feed Batwind’s power management system with data, the smarter it gets. In addition, Batwind can be utilised for other renewable energy sources including solar and onshore wind. We believe this will expand the market for all renewable energy sources,"
Bringsvaerd continued.

Batwind is fully financed by Hywind Scotland partners, Equinor and Masdar and is a first step towards a scalable, global renewables energy storage system.

“The value in storage is not necessarily in the amount of energy you can store, but how you optimize, control and offer smarter energy solutions. By developing Batwind we get real time data, commercial experience and technical verification,"
says Bringsvaerd.

The 30MW Hywind Scotland wind farm is the world’s first commercial floating wind farm and was commissioned last Autumn. It is located 25km off the coast of Peterhead in Aberdeenshire, Scotland.

For more information follow the links provided.

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