Norway's Equinor has installed Batwind, 'the world's first battery for offshore wind,' the company announced Wednesday.
'With Batwind in operation, it will for the first time be possible to store energy produced from an offshore wind farm,' a statement said.
The battery storage solution was presented in Peterhead, Scotland on Wednesday by Batwind partners Equinor and United Arab Emirates' Masdar.
According to the statement, the electricity produced at the world's first floating offshore wind farm Hywind Scotland, located 25 kilometers (15.5 miles) off the coast of Peterhead, will be transported via cables to an onshore substation where the 1 megawatt batteries are placed and connected to the grid.
'The battery capacity is the equivalent of more than 128.000 iPhones,' it added.
Sebastian Bringsvaerd, development manager for Batwind, said the variability of renewable energy could 'to a certain extent' be managed by the grid.
'But to make renewable energy more competitive and integrate even more renewables to the grid, we will need to find new, smart solutions for energy storage to provide firm power. How to do this in a smart and value creating way is what we are aiming to learn from Batwind,' he added.
Batwind is fully financed by Hywind Scotland partners, Equinor and Masdar and is 'a first step' towards a scalable, global renewables energy storage system, Equinor said.
By Murat Temizer
Anadolu Agency
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