Europe’s largest battery energy storage system (BESS) by capacity, powered by Tesla Megapacks and located in the U.K., has officially gone online — reports Bdaily.
The facility cost a whopping £75 million and was funded by the Harmony Energy Income Trust. It has the capacity to store up to 196 megawatt hours (MWh) of electricity per cycle.
The project is situated at Pillswood, near Cottingham, East Yorkshire. Harmony Energy’s Pillswood BESS can store enough energy to power approximately 300,000 homes in Yorkshire for two hours. It will not only provide critical load-balancing capabilities for the U.K.’s power grid network but will also contribute to the transition from fossil fuels to renewable energy.
“We are delighted that our Pillswood Project, Europe’s biggest battery energy storage system (by MW/h), has been officially opened,” said Harmony Energy Limited CEO Peter Kavanagh.
“Funded by Harmony Energy Income Trust, this is the first of six similar projects the Trust intends to deliver in the coming year. It is also a significant achievement for Harmony: this project is the third, and largest, battery energy storage project which we have developed and delivered.”
According to Kavanagh, the project was managed by Tesla. The site is also located right next to National Grid’s Creyke Beck substation — the proposed connection point for phases “A” and “B” of the Dogger Bank, the proposed largest offshore wind farm in the world that’s slated to become operational on the first phase this summer.
“Battery energy storage systems are essential to unlocking the full potential of renewable energy in the U.K., and we hope this particular one highlights Yorkshire as a leader in green energy solutions,” added Kavanagh.
Megapacks are commercial energy storage solutions from Tesla. The company’s new Megafactory in Lathrop, California, produces one Megapack every 68 minutes.
Tesla Megapacks are also set to power the largest energy storage project in Canada, and a Megapack-backed BESS is under development in Scotland as well.
