ENEL GREEN POWER
Enel Green Power, a key player in the growth of battery storage systems in Italy

Construction work at sites for new battery energy storage systems (BESS) will start between April and June and will be carried out all over Italy. This will contribute to the energy transition, based on renewable sources, while ensuring stability and security for the national power grid. In actual fact, at last year's Capacity Market 2024 auction we were awarded the construction of new plants with a total capacity of 1.6 GW of storage systems.

Sardinia at the center

The new construction sites are to be found in a number of Italian regions: Piedmont, Liguria, Lombardy, Veneto, Friuli-Venezia-Giulia, Emilia-Romagna, Lazio, Umbria, Tuscany and Sardinia.

Most of the sites are either at decommissioned thermoelectric plants, or at plants that are in the process of being decommissioned. It's a good example of the 'circular' reuse of resources and land that is already being used for power generation activities. The construction work is expected to last about 12 months, with the plants becoming fully operational in 2024.

Just under half of the plants are located in Sardinia. With the exit from coal, which is due to take place over the next few years, the island will see a strong development of renewables which, together with new storage capacity, will enable the decarbonization of power generation. At the same time, this will ensure the stability and security of the grid by acting in synergy with submarine connections with the rest of the country.

Storage systems enable renewables

By their very nature, renewable sources - especially the Sun and wind - are subject to variability in production, and consequently fail to provide the continuity and stability needed by the electricity grid, especially at times when the share of energy produced from renewables is very high compared to the total. That is why batteries - and storage systems in general - play a key role, contributing energy and services to the grid at peak times or when there is high variability in production.

During periods when the aforementioned natural resources are relatively scarce, the system releases the stored energy at times of greater abundance. Among other things, this makes it possible to maximize renewable generation, which is no longer directly and immediately conditioned by the demand of the moment. That means minimizing the use of fossil fuels, drastically reducing their environmental impact and harmful/climate-altering emissions.

New technologies, a new (circular) approach

The technology of BESS systems is based on the use of electrochemical batteries, which can store the energy produced by renewable plants. It's a kind of power bank that can return the stored energy, on demand.

The most widely used technology on an industrial scale is the lithium battery. This is because of its great advantages in terms of efficiency, modulability and durability. Its reliability, which has been consolidated by its large-scale use, makes it the current reference standard.

But other techniques are also being studied: from new electrochemical batteries (not based on lithium), to systems that harness gravitational energy; from thermal storage to systems based on gas compression.

The goal is the diversification of technologies, while aiming to reduce environmental and geopolitical risks and impacts; for example, those related to the sourcing of critical raw materials from the few global producers.

Special attention is then paid to the end of life of these components, which are often seen as problematic in management and disposal, but which can prove capable of living a Second Life. This is the name of the first demonstration project to reuse lithium batteries, which were recovered from the automotive sector (in collaboration with Nissan) and used by EGP as storage to support the local power grid in the Spanish city of Melilla, on the North African coast.

It should not be forgotten, however, that the components of these systems can - at the end of their life - be a useful source of secondary materials, by becomingavailable again. This is thanks to the most advanced extraction and recycling techniques for those critical raw materials(which are also considered as such by the European Union) that are needed by the battery supply chain.