Wallonia hosts the largest energy storage facility in continental Europe. The 40 mega lithium-ion batteries ensure a stable distribution of energy to the Belgian public grid when wind or solar resources become more fluctuating.
In the context of the current crisis, the capacity to store electricity is considered to be a key element of strategic autonomy.
“Today we realize that the energy resource is an issue of sovereignty“, explains Michael Coudyser, director of Corsica Sole.
With this setup”we can consider doing without external fossil sources“, he adds.
The plant can store 100 megawatt hours of electricity. Each battery costs regarding 800,000 euros, for a lifespan of 10 years. Beyond that, they will be recycled by the manufacturer.
This facility represents 30 million euros investment, without public subsidy. But means are available because the growth of renewable energies and their growing importance in the networks push to reinforce the storage capacities.
“The latest fund we manage has an investment capacity of more than 1.5 billion euros, which we have collected from French and European institutions, but also from Asia and North America.“, says Raphael Lance, energy transition fund manager at Mirova.
In the context of the disruption of Russian gas supplies and the war on its doorstep, the EU is struggling to find the balance between the increase in energy demand and the fight once morest climate change.
The Union has a new programme, REPowerEU, to help Member States increase their energy autonomy. But the industrial-scale development of innovative technologies like hydrogen will take time. Governments are therefore looking immediately to invest in the production and storage of electricity.
