Masdar & Statoil To Explore Potential Of Battery Storage At Hywind Scotland

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Masdar and Statoil have announced a collaborative agreement to study and explore the potential for battery storage by analyzing data from their joint offshore wind and battery storage project at Hywind Scotland, known as Batwind.

Announced on the sidelines of Abu Dhabi Sustainability Week 2018, Masdar, Abu Dhabi Future Energy Company, and Norwegian multinational oil and gas company Statoil have revealed they have signed a collaborative agreement to analyze data from Batwind, the integrated energy storage system that was designed and installed alongside the world’s first commercial-scale floating offshore wind farm, the 30 MW (megawatt) Hywind Scotland. The hope is a range of operational conditions will provide the two companies with a high level of data which will enable them to explore the potential of integrating battery systems with wind and solar.

Statoil announced back in March of 2016 that it intended to pilot a battery storage system alongside Hywind in the hope that it would serve as a launchpad for future technological opportunities. The combined Hywind and Batwind project was launched late last year, and it seems that parent companies Statoil and Masdar are happy enough with the results that they have decided to further investigate the opportunities available.

The agreement signed between the two companies is to collaborate on analyzing the data from Hywind and Batwind and explore the battery’s potential for further applications and business opportunities. The agreement was signed by Bader Al Lamki, Masdar’s Executive Director for Clean Energy, and Sebastian Bringsværd, Head of Hywind Development in New Energy Solutions.

“The intermittent nature of solar and wind energy pose challenges for dependable power supply and grid stability. Energy storage is key to overcoming these challenges and unlocking the full potential of renewables,” said Bader Al Lamki, Masdar’s Executive Director for Clean Energy. “By partnering with Statoil on the Batwind project, Masdar is addressing this critical need for affordable, reliable and regionally-optimized battery technologies and strengthening the viability of energy storage solutions. This has the potential to deliver far-reaching benefits in the development of renewables as a baseload power source.”

“With more renewables coming into production it will be crucial to handle storage to ensure predictable energy supply in periods without wind or sun,” added Sebastian Bringsværd, Head of Hywind Development in New Energy Solutions. “Batwind has the potential to add value by mitigating periods without wind — and by that making wind a more reliable energy producer year around. This could expand the use and market for wind and renewables in the future.”