Yesterday, an article in Solar Power Newsletter by Molly Green described the huge Lithium Ion battery storage facility being installed in Norfolk next to the onshore substation to support the Hornsea 3 Offshore wind farm, predicted to be operating in 2026.
The numbers are invigorating:
Biggest offshore wind farm in the world at 2.4 GW according to Oersted
Biggest battery to store excess energy 0.6 GWh energy store
Hornsea 3 awarded 1GW contract for difference in 2024 auction round.
Construction is happening now but the start-up is still 2 years away. Oersted is the company running the project and have not revealed the interesting numbers such as 'How many battery containers are required?' My estimate is 200. Also,' What will these batteries cost?' My estimate is £60M.
But the key issue is that UK electric energy storage at present in pumped water etc is only around 3GWh, so this battery project is getting towards 20% of the present storage level. However, the Grid is still wasting near 20% of UK wind energy due to lack of storage capacity. A huge problem that could be solved by moving to hydrogen stored in caverns, 10 times cheaper than batteries, with much smaller footprint. Norfolk construction site picture below
