Saft has won a turnkey contract for a 7MWh battery energy storage system (BESS) in a Norwegian archipelago which it claims is the largest in the Arctic, although much larger projects near the polar circle have progressed recently too.
The transport, industry and defense-specialised BESS provider will deliver the 6MW/7MWh system to the Longyearbyen community on the island of Svalbard for completion in late 2022. The bulk of Svalbard’s population of slightly under 3,000 people live there.
The lithium-ion phosphate (LFP) BESS will be housed in six containers based on Saft’s Intensium Max High Energy technology and will feature a fully integrated solution including power conversion and control systems.
The company says it will allow Longyearbyen to cut its emissions by 100% over time. Joachim Karlsen, Longyearbyen Council''s project manager, told Energy-storage.news it has immediate plans for solar PV capacity.
“Longyearbyen will have about 500 kWp installed capacity by the end of 2022, with an expected increase in the coming years. Regarding other energy sources, this is yet to be confirmed, but will be clearer by the end of 2022, when Longyearbyen lokalstyre (council) will publish their energy plan for Longyearbyen,” he said.
“What is certain is that the city has an ambition toward a zero-emission energy system in 2030, and this will inevitably include other renewable energy sources than solar alone."
The BESS will for now be next to a coal-fired power station to provide reserve capacity and overcome fluctuations, as well as backup power. The coal station will close in 2023, after which the ESS will “…provide voltage and frequency control to integrate diesel generators and growing amounts of renewable energy,” the press release reads.
“We selected Saft after a competitive bidding process that evaluated price, quality and capability to deliver,” said Karlsen in the press release.
“One aspect we particularly liked about Saft is its experience and proven high reliability with similar systems for remote communities in northern Canada and Alaska. That has given us extra reassurance that their team has what it takes to deliver this complex project in harsh Arctic conditions and that their technology will provide us with reliability and security of supply.”
A Saft spokesperson told Energy-storage.news why it opted for LFP in this case:
“Despite a slightly lower energy density compared to NMC, it offers excellent cycling capability both in shallow and deep cycling, which is very well suited for use cases like Longyearbean, where storage operation patterns change over time as power generation and consumption mix evolve. LFP is operating well at low temperatures, and is easier to manage with regards to safety.”
They added that, despite the remote location, the Saft ESS comes with full remote monitoring capabilities.
“They are based on highly granular data acquisition at battery level, cloud-based data storage and processing capacities, and dedicated online tools available to operators and service personnel. They allow real-time monitoring of all operational data, alarm management, maintenance optimization and other value-adding functionalities,” they said.
Saft’s projects that Karlsen alluded to include a 21MW wind farm in northwestern Finland and a 1MWh system to a remote coastal Arctic community’s microgrid in Cordova, Alaska. Both are relatively close to but not in the Arctic circle, while a smaller 950kWh system delivered to an electric cooperative in Kotzebue, Alaska, does fall within the boundary.
Saft says it will schedule transportation to Svalbard in the warmer months to overcome logistical challenges, as well as carry out final commissioning during winter to demonstrate the system’s tolerance for the intense Arctic winter.
Other BESS projects in the far north (but again not technically Arctic) include a large 40MWh system in the Yukon province of Canada. SunGrid Solutions was recently chosen by utility Yukon Energy as the project construction partner after a year-long competitive process. The project will cost CA$35 million (US$27 million) of which CA$16.5 million will be provided by the governments’ Green Infrastructure Stream.
Another, even larger one is a 93MWh Tesla Megapack BESS in Alaska’s Kenai Peninsula provided to utility Homer Electric, which went into full commercial operation on January 19th, 2022. The BESS was installed on the site of a gas power plant to provide voltage support, enhance grid stability and reduce gas burn.
While Norway once aimed to be the ''battery of Europe'' it has since been overtaken other Nordic countries Sweden and Finland for BESS deployments. Research firm LCP Delta''s Jon Ferris explores the region''s energy storage market dynamics in this long-form article.
Europe had yet to install its first grid-scale lithium-ion battery when transmission system operator (TSO) Statnett outlined its ambitions for Norway to become "the battery of Europe" a decade ago.
Since then, nearly 3GW of interconnector capacity has been installed to connect the GB and German markets to Norway''s extensive hydro capacity.
However, across Europe battery capacity exceeds 20 GW, with GB, Germany and Italy leading this growth in capacity. Norway''s battery market remains poorly developed, even compared to its neighbours.
In Finland, the largest battery is currently at Olkiluoto, rapidly developed in contrast to the nuclear plant on the same site. Data from LCPDelta''s StoreTrack shows over 300MW of grid-scale batteries expected to come online over the next two years, while the telecoms operator Elisa plans to install 150MWh of batteries across its sites.
Sweden, however, has both a more developed residential storage sector and a bigger pipeline of grid-scale batteries than the rest of the Nordic countries put together, with around 400MW announced for operations in 2024 alone.
One of the first European-owned gigafactories for battery cell production, Northvolt''s Ett was built in Sweden, and the company is collaborating with Volvo to build the country''s second site. Northvolt also entered into a long-term partnership in 2021 with the developer and optimiser Polarium to offer storage solutions to telecoms networks.
Freyr''s Norwegian gigafactory is delayed pending a response to the USA''s Inflation Reduction Act, while Morrow''s projects will not be operational before 2028.
While Polarium largely focuses on the industrial and residential sectors, Sweden''s grid-scale storage is being driven by Ingrid Capacity, which has announced a pipeline of 400MW capacity for 2024. Other startups driving the country''s storage sector includes Flower Technologies, which recently acquired a 42.5MW battery from OX2, and optimiser Fever which is supporting Conapto''s data centre battery to participate in frequency response markets.
The Finnish start-up scene is also developing, with CapaloAI optimising Exilion''s 6MW battery across multiple markets. With their home country''s electricity market dominated by hydro, Norwegian startups like Enode appear to be taking a wider approach, and Eco-Stor is targeting Germany for its battery pipeline.
Commercial and industrial participation in energy markets has long been a feature of the Nordic markets, where a collaboration between Sympower and Vattenfall in Sweden enabled Artic Paper to become the first provider of FCR in 2020, and is now providing 60MW in FFR.
Residential customers have not been left out, with Tibber also aggregating to provide FCR since 2020. More recently, 1komma5 launched its Dynamic Pulse tariff and Heartbeat optimisation platform with the aim of delivering zero-cost energy to households from offering pooled batteries to support grid frequency.
Nordic countries have been acknowledged leaders in the electrification of residential heat and transport, with specialist optimisers Kapacity.io managing flexibility from heat pumps in Finland and True Energy EVs in Sweden and Denmark.
The investments in batteries and residential flexibility have been driven by the increasing need for ancillary services, especially for downward regulation, where Sweden''s TSO Svenska Kraftnat has been struggling to procure its target capacity, and for Fast Frequency Response due to low inertia over the summer months. Lower weekend demand means that generation that historically provided downward regulation is offline, leading to an increased requirement to procure mFRR capacity.
But the high prices that have attracted this investment in batteries and residential flexibility may not be sustainable due to the saturation of markets. Although the need for flexibility grows with renewable generation and rising demand, the capacity of installed batteries is growing at a faster rate.
Meanwhile moves towards sharing reserve capacity between countries, initially within the Nordic balancing model and eventually the pan-European coupled markets, will make more efficient use of flexibility and should reduce balancing costs for system operators and consumers.
Lithium-ion batteries increasingly dominate the short-term flexibility markets across Europe, and are dealing with market saturation by stacking value across longer duration spot markets. But questions remain around the suitability of batteries to meet the anticipated need for flexibility over weekly or monthly durations.
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