Renewable energies: BYD builds 12.5 GWh storage facility in Saudi Arabia
Saudi Arabia wants to cover half of its electricity needs from renewable sources in five years. Electricity storage facilities are being built for this purpose.
Grid storage (symbolic image): Saudi Arabia is driving forward the energy transition.
(Image: BYD)
Storage for solar power: Chinese battery manufacturer BYD says it is building several grid storage systems in Saudi Arabia. The project comprises five storage facilities with a combined capacity of 12.5 gigawatt hours. By comparison, the largest grid storage facility currently under construction, the Edwards Sanborn Solar Storage Project in the US state of California, has a capacity of just under 3.3 gigawatt hours.
The project is part of the Saudi Vision 2030 initiative, a concept for restructuring the economy in order to become independent of oil. This also includes restructuring the energy supply: Half of the country's electricity needs are to be covered by renewable sources by 2030, and the kingdom aims to be carbon neutral by 2060.
A new storage facility has been in operation since January
The storage facilities are intended to compensate for fluctuations in energy production. Due to the restructuring of the energy supply, Saudi Arabia is currently one of the largest markets for storage systems. BYD has already built two storage systems in the country with a total capacity of 2.6 gigawatt hours. A 2-gigawatt-hour storage system was put into operation in January.
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BYD uses MC Bube BESS storage systems in Saudi Arabia. BYD installs the blade battery in these systems. The blades are long and narrow battery packs that are also used in the Group's current electric cars.
(wpl)
