Iberdrola To Build Six BESS Projects Of 150-MW In Spain

Global renewable energy conglomerate Iberdrola has announced that it will install six Battery Energy Storage Systems (BESS) with a combined capacity of 150 MW in Spain.

Battery storage technology is becoming increasingly important for maximising the use of clean energy, regulating the grid frequency to within a millisecond and providing back-up capacity at peak energy periods.

The six new batteries to be built by Iberdrola have been recognised as Strategic Projects for Economic Recovery and Transformation (PERTE), in its renewable energy, green hydrogen and storage (ERHA) division, and will receive 37.5 million in funding.

The batteries will have lithium-ion technology and the systems will be installed as hybrid technology together with renewable energy sources; mainly solar). Hence, photovoltaic plant and the battery will share the same connection point.

The projects will be built in Castilla y León, Extremadura, Castilla La Mancha and Andalusia, and each battery will have 25 MW of power and a capacity of 50 MWh. Each project will generate more than 100 green jobs, including the construction and operation phases.

In Castilla y León, a battery will be installed in Revilla Vallejera (Burgos), where Iberdrola España completed its first hybrid wind-solar plant in Spain in 2023.

Extremadura will have two new batteries. Iberdrola will install two batteries in the province of Cáceres, where the C. Arañuelo I and II photovoltaic plants are located.

In Castilla La Mancha, two batteries will be installed in the municipalities of Valverdejo, Alarcón and Olmedilla de Alarcón (Cuenca), where Iberdrola already has solar parks.

The sixth battery will be built in Huelva, in the municipality of Puebla de Guzmán where Iberdrola has the Andévalo photovoltaic plant which it claims to be the first facility built with the UNEF Certificate of Excellence.

Iberdrola & Its Battery Endeavours In Spain

In November 2019, Iberdrola inaugurated Spain’s first electrical energy storage system with lithium-ion batteries for distribution networks. The project is located in the Murcian municipality of Murcia and improves the quality of energy supply in the surrounding area. Its Campo Arañuelo III installation has been the first battery connected to a photovoltaic project.

Iberdrola also developed the Puertollano battery having a capacity of 20 MWh that stores the production obtained from a nearby solar plant to generate green hydrogen of the largest plant of this energy source for industrial use in Europe.

Furthermore, in the Basque Country, Iberdrola has built its first battery to store wind energy at the Elgea-Urkilla wind farm.