The storage unit, with an installed capacity of 24 MWh, has been built in the Constanța county in Romania by Monsson, based on Prime Batteries Technology solutions. It is the first out of three stages with a total planned capacity of 216 MWh to be put into operation until 2025. The unit will be charged with energy generated by the already existing 50MW Mireasa wind farm, as well as with solar energy produced by the 35MW Galbiori 2 PV farm which is under construction and should be connected to the grid in 2024. In case of no wind or sun, energy from the national grid may also charge the facility. All operations are seamlessly automated and remotely controlled. The unit functions within an integrated system, driven by proprietary software crafted by Monsson.

Vicentiu Ciobanu, the CEO at Prime Batteries, said: “At the moment, our project is among Europe’s five largest. However, when it reaches the capacity of 216 MWh, it will be the biggest facility of this kind in the continent. The current 24 MWh storage consists of 132 battery strings with 114,048 lithium-ion cells containing 1,240 kilometres of active material electrodes. It has taken approx. 4,200 hours of engineering on the electrical part and 3,000 hours on the mechanical part – the work proudly carried out in Romania.”

Răzvan Nicolescu, the EIT Governing Board member and former energy minister in Romania, declared: “I am very excited that such an important storage capacity is manufactured and installed in Europe by a Romanian company benefiting from EIT InnoEnergy support. The project is very important for the resilience and energy autonomy of Europe because the batteries are produced in Europe and this is also the biggest project of this size on the continent.”

Marcin Wasilewski, the CEO of EIT InnoEnergy in Central Europe, commented: “We are thrilled to observe significant advancements in Prime Batteries’ key development projects. It is inspiring to see the InnoEnergy portfolio company charting its course to emerge as a success story within the European battery value chain.”

With extensive expertise in the production of batteries and customised energy storage solutions, Prime Batteries Technology caters to diverse industries such as renewables, utilities, marine, industrial, material handling, and automotive sectors. Their profound understanding of client requirements, coupled with broad coverage of value chain solutions, has fostered fruitful collaborations with major DSOs, EPCs, and renewable energy producers across various European countries including the United Kingdom, Germany, Norway, Spain, Italy, Poland, Croatia, Slovenia, and Turkey.