The Dutch company Giga Storage has secured almost €700 million in financing to construct Europe’s largest battery park in Dilsen-Stokkem (Belgium) – 3.5 times the size of the current record-holder, the battery park Engie commissioned in Vilvoorde late last year.
The ‘Green Turtle’, as the gigantic project will be called, is intended to store enormous quantities of electricity during periods of oversupply for later in the evening, when the sun isn’t shining, and the wind isn’t blowing.
385,000 families
The new battery park will consist of rows of 640 large battery containers, connected to the Elia high-voltage grid, with a total storage capacity of 2,800 MWh and a capacity of 700 megawatts when fully charged. At peak times, the facility can supply electricity equivalent to the daily consumption of approximately 385,000 households.
The massive Limburg park will be built on a strategic spot: the former site of a zinc plant, ideally located next to a high-voltage substation operated by Elia, the operator of the Belgian high-voltage grid. Initially, there were plans to build a large gas-fired power plant on the 12.5-hectare site, but Giga Storage ultimately purchased the land.
Heatwaves
Funding for the park in Dilsen-Stokkem includes €450 million from an international consortium of banks: Belfius, ABN AMRO, ING, Rabobank, Triodos, HCOB, Santander, and SMBC. The remainder consists of equity provided by Giga Storage shareholders.
The recent heatwaves highlighted just how critical the situation in the electricity market is. The massive use of air conditioning units drove up energy consumption, and electricity prices in Belgium reached their highest levels in years. In the wholesale electricity market, 658.09 euros per megawatt-hour had to be paid – it had not been this expensive since December 2022.
Conversely, extremely negative prices were recorded – dropping as low as 500 euros below zero in May – when there was a surplus of solar power during the day. Batteries can prevent curtailment of wind and solar energy production when there is a surplus.
Price fluctuations
In just a few years, battery parks have come to play a crucial role in the electricity grid. With the increasing share of renewable generation, electricity supply and demand are increasingly diverging, leading to significant price fluctuations in the wholesale market.
Frédéric Dunon, CEO of Elia Transmission Belgium: “At Elia, we see every day how the energy transition pushes the demand for electricity. To enable this further electrification, we need more grid infrastructure, flexibility, and storage capacity. Batteries are indispensable in this regard. They support the integration of renewable energy, help maintain grid balance, and strengthen security of supply.”
This way, we can eventually move away from foreign fossil energy sources, ensuring that our future energy supply is reliable and affordable for both residents and industry.
Giga Storage
Giga Storage was founded in 2018 and currently has 50 employees. The company aims to have 2,000 megawatts of battery parks operational in the Netherlands, Belgium, and Germany by 2030.
Giga Storage’s projects store sustainably generated electricity and feed it back into the grid when demand is highest. By balancing supply and demand, Giga Storage helps reduce grid imbalance, congestion, and the curtailment of renewable energy, while fostering greater independence from imported fossil fuels. The Green Turtle project is expected to be operational by the end of 2028.
