Irish-led Corre Energy has signed commercial times with renewable energy company Eneco for capacity of its energy storage project in the Netherlands.
The energy storage and renewables specialist said the deal was a 15-year agreement for the Zuidwending Compressed Air Energy Storage (CAES) project, located in the province of Groningen. Corre Energy has the rights to build a CAES facility using salt caverns at the site, with 320 Megawatts of power generating capacity and a maximum storage discharge duration of about 3.5 days.
The agreement will see Corre Energy construct, operate and maintain the facility, and will act as a proof of concept for the energy storage firm‘s plans. Eneco will provide market access services, and help meet the company‘s requirements for flexible energy sources to meet ts target of becoming climate-neutral by 2035.
This will be the first large-scale CAES facility to be constructed in Europe in almost 50 years.
“Eneco shares our deep belief in the requirement for and the value of large-scale Compressed Air Energy Storage, and it is making a very significant commitment to enable this project. It also shares Corre Energy’s commitment to making a tangible contribution to the energy transition and the journey to net zero in Europe,” said Keith McGrane, chief executive of Corre Energy.
“Zuidwending will be hydrogen fuel enabled from Day One and we expect the maturing of the hydrogen market to allow the facility to operate entirely on surplus renewable energy and green hydrogen, making an increasingly positive environmental impact.
Corre Energy is providing a grid-scale solution for critical storage of renewable energy, developing a pipeline of long duration energy storage projects across northern Europe.
Mr McGrane said he was confident Corre could deliver the Zuidwending project.
