Endesa plans Europe’s largest hybrid wind-solar-storage plant

From pv magazine Spain

Spanish power provider Endesa, a subsidiary of Italy-based utility Enel, has announced it has won Pego’s fair transition competition in Portugal for the construction of a project that combines the hybridization of renewable sources and their storage with initiatives of social and economic development.

Through the international contest, the Italian-owned Spanish company’s Portuguese subsidiary, Endesa Generación Portugal, secured a connection permit to link to the 224 MegavoltAmpere (MPA) network to install a hybrid facility integrating PV, wind power, battery storage and a small hydrogen generation unit in Pego, in the Santarém district of central Portugal.

According to Endesa, the project will require an investment of approximately €600 million and will consist of a 365MW PV unit, a 264MW wind farm, and 168MW of battery storage. The utility did not indicate what storage capacity the battery facility would have. It will also be connected to a 500kW electrolyzer that will be used with surplus power that cannot be stored by the batteries.

The project is claimed to allow about 6,000 hours of annual production, which the company said is higher than the operation of any conventional thermal plant.

The hybrid renewable energy plant is replacing a 628MW coal power plant located in Pego, which should be closed by Endesa this year. Workers of the old facility will be integrated in the operation of the new plant, Endesa said.

“It will also include activities of the primary sector such as agriculture, livestock, or beekeeping between the solar panels,” Endesa’s statement reads.