The first battery storage system at an EnBW wind farm has gone into operation.
EnBW said the electricity generated from the Häusern wind farm in Germany can be fed into the grid more flexibly through the battery energy storage system (BESS).
The wind farm on the Gießbacher Kopf, north of the municipality of Häusern in the Landshut district, has been in operation since September 2023.
Two wind turbines, each with a capacity of 3.45MW, generate around 21.7GWh of electricity per year, which is enough to cover the annual demand of around 7500 households.
With up to 2.2MW of power, electricity from the wind turbines can be stored in the battery.
It is expected there will be up to two charging cycles per day, and about 10% of the wind power generated by the turbines will run through the storage system.
EnBW said hybrid farms with battery storage contribute to grid stability and offer wind farm operators flexibility in feed-in, which increases the profitability of the turbines.
The company is already planning battery storage systems as standard at its solar parks.
However, the periods of charging and discharging differ between use at solar and wind farms.
At solar parks, a single charging cycle is common, with storage over the midday period when the most solar power is generated. Feed-in is then usually in the evening.
In the case of a wind farm, on the other hand, the battery can also be charged at night and fed into the grid the following the morning.