Germany's battery giant takes off

DW (English)

Energy transition in northern Germany: One of Europe's largest battery storage systems, with a capacity of 104 MW, is going online. The major project is considered a milestone for renewable energies - but the use of Chinese batteries raises concerns.

Transcript

00:00It looks like a regular mid-size construction container, except here in Bollingstedt, northern

00:06Germany, 64 of them are standing side by side, back to back. They are the heart of one of the

00:13largest battery storage units in the country. Its total power output, 103.5 megawatts, enough to

00:20power 170,000 homes for two hours. It takes in the ever-growing output of wind turbines and solar

00:28panels, when more power is created than used, and distributes that power when wind and solar

00:33aren't satisfying demand.

00:38The storage unit equalizes the volatility within the grid. It balances extremes and essentially

00:44allows us to integrate a growing number of sustainable energy sources.

00:50The company behind this project is German-Norwegian EcoStor. It launched in 2021 and builds these

00:56units across Germany. The first smaller units went into service in 2022, and additional

01:03big ones are planned, with a capacity of up to two gigawatt-hours each.

01:08Just six kilometers down the road, another unit is under construction. But EcoStor is not

01:14the only one building here. Other companies, too, have realized that money can be made by

01:19storing and reselling electric power in a market that sees constantly changing levels of supply

01:25and demand. Germany is planning to set up storage units that, combined, will produce 161

01:31gigawatts, putting the country in second place within Europe, right behind Italy, just

01:36ahead of Britain. The new battery storage facilities are set to make Germany more competitive.

01:41German companies find themselves in a competitive market, and our energy prices are high.

01:51That's a problem.

01:53Now, battery storage units are able to store large amounts of power when it's cheap,

01:58when we have more power than we need.

02:01And then we use it at times when it's needed.

02:04So that lets us lower energy prices in total, step by step. And of course, we need lots of

02:10units.

02:14But critics are worried about a flooding of energy markets and about creating more storage

02:18capacity than needed. That, again, would drive costs up.

02:22We're pretty sure that all of the orders we are currently seeing, all those saying,

02:29I'm getting in line to see when I can get my unit hooked up, that many of those projects

02:34will never happen. We've always seen that. We've always seen this in the renewable energy

02:41sector. The wave always looks better than it is in the end.

02:46Another point of criticism. The batteries for EcoStor's large-scale storage system come from

02:51the Chinese manufacturer BYD.

02:54What we're building is critical infrastructure. There are very strict regulations and ordinances,

03:00which we naturally adhere to. The battery itself no longer has a communication interface

03:05to BYD. This means that we no longer have a direct connection to them.

03:11Of course, we are already dependent on the Chinese market, but that's simply the overall

03:15situation at the moment. There are no European manufacturers.

03:20Despite this lagging behind in batteries, it does seem that Germany is about to take a major

03:27leap in its energy transformation. The Federal Association for the Solar Economy estimates that

03:33the country's capacity for energy storage will quintuple within two years.

03:39Thanks

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03:49what you have seen in the-

03:57...

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