Vattenfall is building a new hybrid energy park, consisting of solar panels, wind turbines and batteries at Haringvliet in the Netherlands. The total capacity is 60 MW, enough to deliver renewable energy to 40,000 Dutch households when operational I September 2020. The total investment is EUR 61 million.
Through this project, Vattenfall combines wind turbines with solar panels and energy storage. Gunnar Groebler, Senior Vice President and Head of Business Area Wind, Vattenfall: “Vattenfall wants to enable fossil-free living within one generation and hybrid power plants are an important building block for us in the direction of 100% fossil-free power generation. The complementary wind and solar generation profiles reduce the load on the grid compared to a single generation technology. Hybrid systems provide less pronounced peaks and we see fewer total times without production.
This leads to a more efficient use of the network infrastructure. In addition, the costs for grid connection are significantly reduced compared to stand-alone systems. This will reduce the cost of renewable electricity and ultimately benefit customers.”
The first stage of the building work on the energy park involves installing a total of six wind turbines in the north of Goeree-Overflakkee island between Middelharnis and Stad aan ‘t Haringvliet. The power output of the wind farm is expected to be in the region of 22 MW, which is enough to supply green electricity to around 27,000 households. The maximum height of the wind turbines is 150 meters, and preparatory work has now begun.
Once the wind turbines have been installed, the solar farm can then be built, consisting of 124,000 solar panels with a total of 38 MW – enough to supply green electricity to around 12,000 households. The batteries – supplied by BMW and with a capacity of 12 MWh – will be installed in 12 shipping containers on the solar farm. The energy park is expected to be fully operational in September 2020.
Vattenfall is a leading European energy company, that for more than 100 years has electrified industries, supplied energy to people’s homes and modernised our way of living through innovation and cooperation. We now want to make fossil-free living possible within one generation. Therefore, we are driving the transition to a more sustainable energy system through growth in renewable production and climate smart energy solutions for our customers. We employ approximately 20,000 people and have operations mainly in Sweden, Germany, the Netherlands, Denmark and the UK. Vattenfall is owned by the Swedish state. For more information: www.corporate.vattenfall.com