Enel Green Power Spain: the installation of batteries, which has received funding from the investment aid program in photovoltaic energySOLBALL, administered by the IDAEhas a power of 1.1 MW and a capacity of 5.5 MWh, which makes it the largest energy storage installation based on vanadium flow batteries in Europe.
Endesathrough the renewable division Enel Green Power Spain (EGPE), has commissioned the largest renewable energy storage facility in vanadium flow batteries in Europe at the Son Orlandis solar power plant in Mallorca. It’s about the first storage installation of energy that the company builds in Spain innovative technology, without the use of lithiumthanks to vanadium flow storage.
The Son Orlandis storage system is an innovative battery-based vanadium redox currentthat is, it allows a high flexibility and modularityavoiding service disruptions and ensuring the supply of clean energy even during peaks in demand, limiting natural production fluctuations that are unavoidable with renewable plants.
This facility features a 1.1 MW power and a maximum accumulated energy of 5.5 MWh to become the largest hybridized reduction-oxidation flow battery with a photovoltaic installation in Europe. “Las vanadium flow batteries They store electrical energy electrochemically, like lithium batteries, but use a different configuration and different elements than lithium, in this case the vanadium“explain the innovation experts from Endesa’s renewable subsidiary, Enel Green Power Spain.
Furthermore, with flow batteries, power and energy are completely separated, because the amount of energy that can be stored mainly depends on the size of the electrolyte deposits. So this solution makes one greater flexibility in battery size and higher capacity storage solutions.
It is precisely this last property that makes these batteries particularly suitable for use in long-term applications, but also for storing the energy produced by wind and solar farmswhere many hours of storage are required.
The VCHARGE± storage system is an intrinsically safe and sustainable solution
The Son Orlandis battery system was created in collaboration with Largo Clean Energy, manufacturer of the charging system. VLADEN± leader of some systems vanadium flow batteries most advanced in the world. The VCHARGE± storage system is an intrinsically safe and sustainable solutiongiven that The electrolyte has a virtually “infinite” lifespan and can be easily reused at the end of its life without deteriorating in quality, and therefore without having a negative impact on the environment.
These types of batteries have the advantage that they have a lifespan more than 20 years without hardly any degradation occurring, very interesting for long-term storage of more than 6 hours and offers enormous safety benefits.
In the case of Son Orlandis, the storage system is linked to a photovoltaic installation of 3.34 MWp. Thanks to the use of a specific management system, the system’s loading and unloading activities are optimized based on renewable production and network needs. so that peaks in demand can be absorbed. From a technological point of view, the vanadium system represents a step forward long term storageessential for the energy management of an island like Mallorca.
Hence the battery system of the Balearic Islands will contribute to creating the electrical network more stable and suitable for ingress renewable energy by reducing dependence on fossil fuels, accelerating the islands’ path to energy self-sufficiency.
ENDESA: commitment to integrative and innovative renewable energy sources in the Balearic Islands
The Son Orlandis factory, which has been in operation since 2023, has not only become an example of this innovation but also from integrationas it has adopted the principles of “Creating Shared Value” from its construction until now in operation, so that the factory has been integrated into the area and made it possible improving economic and social conditions of the local environment in which it operates.
And she has done this by educating the local population with the aim of: improve your employability in a sector with great potential such as renewable. In this sense, there are courses on operation and maintenance renewable plants then promoting local recruitment.
Added to these courses is the collaboration with the Juan XXIII Foundation and Esment, an entity that has been working for 55 years on the integration of people in situations of psychosocial vulnerability, with intellectual disability or mental illness. Endesa, through its subsidiary EGPE, has provided courses on brush clearing, forest maintenance and composting photovoltaic installationsso that the students who obtain the diploma, of which eleven have been obtained so far, are hired in the companies themselves. renewable facilities to perform these fundamental tasks in the operation of a renewable installation.
In addition, in the academic year 2023-2024 Energy audit workshops in various secondary education centers in Mallorca. These workshops, which are part of the company’s CSV plan, are designed to train schoolchildren to perform energy diagnoses, learn to analyze the results and become aware of savings habits.