Portugal has 720 MWh of battery capacity awaiting environmental permits

Two solar-plus-storage projects are among five planned renewable energy sites whose details have been published for public consultation on the Portuguese Environment Agency’s Participa portal.

Lisbon-based Endesa subsidiary Newcon40 Unipessoal Lda is developing the Sol de Évora Photovoltaic Solar Plant which would include a 240.72 MW/481.44 MWh battery energy storage system (BESS). The 48 lithium ferro-phosphate (LFP) battery containers, each with a storage capacity of 5,015 kWh, would be Sungrow’s ST5015 kWh-2500 kW-2h products.

Newcon40 applied to the to Portugal’s Directorate-General for Energy and Geology (DGEG) for the 400 megavolt ampere (MVA) solar project in 2019. In September 2023, the project secured a grid capacity agreement from electricity transmission system operator Redes Energéticas Nacionais (REN).

Hyperion Renewables is developing the 260.37 MWp Graça do Divor Photovoltaic Solar Power Plant, which includes a 120.36 MW/240.72 MWh LFP BESS. The 48 battery containers planned at the project, which Hyperion submitted to the DGEG in 2019, would each contain 5,015 kWh of the same Sungrow products.

The developer secured grid capacity for the solar-plus-storage project from REN in September 2023.

The other projects awaiting environmental permits include Endesa’s 82.17 MWp Helíade Photovoltaic Plant, part of the planned “Pego Cluster” which will feature 168.6 MW of energy storage alongside 365 MWp of solar and 264 MW of wind generation capacity and a 500 kW electrolyzer for the production of green hydrogen. The overall project was awarded in 2022 via a Pego Just Transition competition in Portugal.

From pv magazine España.