The German energy company RWE has unexpectedly abandoned its plans for an energy storage facility at Dilsen-Stokkem in Limburg Province. The facility was to have had a storage capacity of 800 megawatt/hour. The company points to the recent decision to prolong the life of Belgium’s two newest nuclear reactors by a further decade beyond 2025 as the reason for its change of heart.
Home News
German energy giant pulls the plug on plans for a large-scale battery park
Published:
The financial daily De Tijd writes that RWE’s decision was completely unexpected. The company was given a licence to build a 200-megawatt battery park at Rottem, a village in Dilsem-Stokkem in April of last year.
The facility would be able to store up to 800 megawatt hours of electricity, this is eight times more that any existing storage facility in Belgium. The project was to have been the largest of its kind in Europe. However, ‘De Tijd’ reports that last week RWE decided to pull the plug.
The company says that it took the decision to shelve the project in the light of the Belgian Federal Government’s decision to prolong the life of the country’s two newest nuclear reactors by a further 10 years beyond 2025. Nevertheless, it doesn’t rule out large scale battery store facilities at some stage in the future.