Scotland Launches Largest Renewable Energy Storage Facility.

Zenobē has launched the Blackhillock energy storage installation in Scotland. This project is important for the efficient use of wind energy. Thanks to this installation, Scotland will be able to receive energy for two hours, providing electricity to over 3.1 million homes.

Blackhillock consists of two phases: the first phase with a capacity of 200 MW has already been launched, and the second phase with a capacity of 100 MW is planned to be launched in 2026. Overall, the installation will have a capacity of 300 MW/600 MWh.

The main goal of this project is to reduce the load on the electrical grid caused by offshore wind farms such as Viking (443 MW), Moray East (950 MW), and Beatrice (588 MW). This installation plays an important role in maximizing the overall production of clean energy by optimizing energy use and reducing losses.

Blackhillock is the first energy storage facility in the world that provides stability services for the National Energy System Operator (NESO). Typically, stability requests for fossil fuel power plants, such as short-circuit levels, reactive power, and inertia, are resolved automatically. However, renewable energy sources cannot provide the same level of stability. The Blackhillock installation compensates for this shortcoming by ensuring resilient and stable electricity supply.

The Blackhillock battery storage installation uses technologies from Wärtsilä, which supplies the Quantum energy storage system, the GEMS digital energy platform, and SMA network-forming inverters to ensure high quality and stability of electricity.

At Zenobē, they expect this project to help consumers save £172 million ($218.7 million) over the next 15 years.

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