CORSICA SOLE inaugurates the largest storage facility in continental Europe
News
On 1 December 2022, Michael COUDYSER, Managing Director of CORSICA SOLE, and Raphaël Lance, Director of Mirova’s Energy Transition Fund 5, inaugurated the largest energy storage plant in continental Europe in Deux-Acren, Belgium.
With this project, CORSICA SOLE is scaling up and becoming one of the European leaders in the sector.
The plant can store 100 MWh of energy in lithium-ion batteries, at a power level of up to 50 MW, enabling it to regulate frequency on the European electricity transmission grid. The commissioning of this plant is the culmination of several years of work in partnership with Tesla, Yuso and InnoVent, the project’s initiators.
Energy storage helps stabilise electricity grids by ensuring a balance between production and consumption. Today, this function is performed by oil- or gas-fired power plants, making the European grid dependent on fossil fuels.
Connected to the public electricity grid, storage plants provide ‘services’ to its operator to ensure the stability of energy distribution. These services have various functions: regulating grid frequency, compensating for the intermittency of renewable energies and storing energy during off-peak hours of low consumption for reinjection during peak consumption hours.
Deux Acren storage facility
Energy storage: the cornerstone of the European Union’s energy independence
It is now vital for the European Union to be able to control its energy production and therefore its costs. In addition to being economical, storage plants can be built in less than a year and can respond quickly to the energy crisis.
A pioneer in energy storage in France, CORSICA SOLE has been operating this type of power plant on French islands since 2015.
This project is an important step forward in the development of electricity storage solutions in Europe. We financed this project with our shareholder Mirova Energy Transition 5 without resorting to any public subsidies. By demonstrating that large-scale battery deployment is economically viable, we are proving that we can build a world based on renewable energies coupled with energy storage. With this project, CORSICA SOLE is scaling up and becoming one of the European leaders in the sector. The proliferation of this type of project is a strategic challenge for ensuring Europe’s energy sovereignty.
As a committed player in the energy transition, CORSICA SOLE firmly believes that renewable energies are a relevant response to the fight against climate change. The company’s mission is to accelerate the energy transition towards a world that is 100% renewable and 0% fossil fuel-based. By designing, building and operating renewable energy production and electricity storage plants, CORSICA SOLE helps regions to harness their natural resources and achieve energy sovereignty.
