NEC and EnspireME to build Europe’s largest battery energy storage system in Germany

NEC and EnspireME to build Europe’s largest battery energy storage system in Germany

Tokyo, Japan & Jardelund, Germany – April 19, 2017 – NEC Corporation (NEC; TSE: 6701) and NEC Energy Solutions, an NEC subsidiary, announced today that they have reached an agreement with Germany-based EnspireME, a fifty-fifty joint venture established between Mitsubishi Corporation and Eneco, a Netherlands-based integrated energy company, to build a large-scale battery energy storage system in Jardelund, Germany. The system is scheduled to begin operating in December 2017, with a power capacity of 48 MW and a storage capacity of over 50 MWh, which will be the largest stationary type system in Europe.

EnspireMe will utilize this battery energy storage system to supply sustainable reserve capacity to balance the European electricity grid. Mitsubishi Corporation and Eneco will also start a pilot project involving the storage of locally produced surplus wind energy. 

The European Union (EU), as a leader in alternative energy initiatives, has set a goal of meeting 20 percent of energy consumption within its member states through renewable energy by 2020. In Germany, where renewable energy has been actively introduced to provide a large, stable volume of energy to electric power systems, a market has already been established for ancillary services that maintain electric power quality, including frequency and voltage, in electric power systems.

“The market for battery energy storage systems is expected to grow significantly with the expansion of the renewable energy market. Leveraging this large-scale project in Germany, the leading market for the introduction of renewable energy, and NEC’s comprehensive battery energy storage know-how, we aim to globally expand the business of battery energy storage systems,” said Michihiro Ezawa, General Manager, ESS Division, NEC Corporation.