Endesa renewable energy project combines floating solar, wind, batteries

  • Lusa
  • 7 April 2022

The company won a floating solar photovoltaic energy auction in the Alto Rabagão reservoir in Montalegre .

The Endesa project that won the floating solar photovoltaic energy auction in the Alto Rabagão reservoir in Montalegre provides a combination of solar panels wind and batteries, which “mitigates the volatility” of renewables.

“In the case of Alto Rabagão, 42.5 MW [Megawatt] of connection capacity was up for tender, but I have another 48 MW of wind and 16 MW of batteries associated. I only request and occupy the grid connection with 42 MW,” said the chief executive officer (CEO) of Endesa Portugal, saying that in this way, it can “mitigate the volatility attributed to renewable energies”.

“By mixing and doing this combination, I get much higher availability. I’m not exposed only to the solar cycle or only to wind. I have with the batteries storage capacity – this even for the electricity system is very favourable – because it gives me reliability of electricity delivery over 60% of the time,” he told journalists on the sidelines of the conference “Energy on the new geopolitical map,” held by Lusa in Lisbon.

According to the company, the project at that dam will involve an investment of around €115 million and is due to start operating in 2026.

“With this combination, I canoperate as a dispatchable power plant for more than 60% of the time and mitigate the volatility attributed to renewable energy,” he added.

Nuno Ribeiro da Silva said that the company he leads had applied for two more lots in the floating solar auction held on Monday, which awarded six of the seven lots to EDP, Endesa, Finerge and Voltalia.

Castelo de Bode was left out, for which an improved bid is required.

The government decided to auction the operation of 263 megawatts (MW) of solar energy in seven dams in the country and has awarded 183 MW, according to the ministry for the environment and climate action.

Through its subsidiary EDP Renováveis, EDP obtained the right to connect to the electricity grid a capacity of 70 MW in Alqueva (of the 100 that were up for tender).

Finerge, a renewable energy producer, won three lots in the auction, which were the Paradela (13 MW), Salamonde (8 MW) and Vilar-Tabuaço (17 MW) reservoirs, for a total of 38 MW.

Voltalia, as reported today in the Público newspaper, won the Cabril lot (33 MW), thus totalling 183 MW awarded in the auction.

The lot in Castelo de Bode, which has a reception capacity of 50 MW, remained to be awarded.

The ministry for the environment and climate action said in a statement that this lot had only one bidder, and the competitor had five working days to make an improved offer.

In the document released today, the government said that the auction was “a success,” reaching the lowest energy price globally, with gains for consumers of €7.6 million per year.

The environment ministry said that these results were preliminary and were in a prior hearing period and that the Castelo de Bode batch from the single bidder could still be added.