It is TotalEnergies’ largest BESS project in Europe and builds on a series of units in neighbouring France deployed and commissioned by Saft, which it acquired in 2016, totalling 130MWh. These include a 61MWh system completed in late 2021, the largest in France, and a 25MWh system completed a few months later.

The Antwerp project will be made up of 40 Intensium Max High Energy lithium-ion containers from Saft and will be online by the end of 2024.

“This first storage project in Belgium – our largest in Europe – will help ensure the stability of the Belgian and European grids to allow for greater development of renewable energies. It fits in perfectly with the multi-energy strategy of TotalEnergies,” said Olivier Jouny, Senior Vice President Integrated Power at the company.

“Backed by Saft’s battery energy storage system expertise, TotalEnergies intends to deploy storage solutions – notably in countries where we are actively developing renewable energies. With its energy storage solutions, TotalEnergies supports the growth of renewable energy production in the European energy mix.”

Belgium has a very active grid-scale market with battery storage projects taking advantage of ancillary service and energy trading opportunities.

Earlier this month, Netherlands-based BESS firm Alfen said it would deploy a two-hour project for Centrica Business Solutions in Oostende while at the end of April, utility Engie announced plans to deploy 380MW of projects in the country.

Saft, also based in France, produces battery systems for a range of sectors including defense and transportation.