Endesa’s €600 million RE park in Portugal to have Solar, Wind and Green Hydrogen

Enel Group subsidiary Endesa Generación Portugal will develop a renewable energy park that will have solar, wind and green hydrogen projects. This will require an investment of €600 million in the Abrantes region of Portugal. Endesa has also been awarded rights to build a 168.6 megawatt (MW) battery energy storage system (BESS) also that will replace the last coal power station in Portugal.

The BESS will be integrated with 365MWp of solar energy and 264MW of wind energy. Endesa has secured connection rights of 224 MVA. The company will also construct a 500kW electrolyser to manufacture green hydrogen.

The press statement says that the investment is not subject to external financial aid as it is economically sustainable. The renewable power stored in the battery energy storage system created by Endesa will be uploaded into the Public Service Electricity Grid (RESP) in a dynamic and optimised way that will reduce energy losses and optimize its use. The surplus power that couldn’t be stored in the BESS will be employed to produce green hydrogen through electrolyser.

The Pego Coal Power Plant is the last one in Portugal and it had stopped generating power back in November 2021. It had a massive capacity of 628 MW and was being managed by a joint venture between Endesa and Trustenergy. Endesa says that now it’s coming up with a training plan for more than 2,000 persons who could be accommodated.

Endesa had announced last December that it will be replacing the Pego Coal Power Plant with a renewable energy park. The company said that its plans are aligned with its objectives to become carbon emission free in its operations by 2050.

In November 2020, Endesa had released its vision for the current decade, for which it plans to invest a total of €25 billion. With this, it will increase its percentage of total CO2-free emissions to 80% by 2030. For the period of 2021-2023, Endesa will increase investment to €7.9 billion to accelerate decarbonisation and digitisation.