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France to Use Batteries for Renewables Instead of Power Lines

France to Use Batteries for Renewables Instead of Power Lines

(Bloomberg) --

France’s grid operator will test storing excess wind and solar power in batteries to reduce the need to build new transmission lines that involve heavy construction work and take longer to complete.

Network operators across Europe are seeking ways to both minimize the cost and environmental impact of the energy transition. Reseau de Transport d’Electricite estimates that France will need to spend 33 billion euros ($37 billion) by 2035 to renovate the network, build new interconnectors and make the grid more flexible to accommodate an influx of wind and solar farms as the country reduces its reliance on nuclear power.

“There’s no strong appetite from the society for planting more pylons and for building more electric transformers,” Francois Brottes, chairman of RTE, said at a presentation of the pilot project on Wednesday. “We need to find alternative solutions, and this is one among others.”

The project consists of installing three batteries near wind farms, far enough apart so they can each store enough power to supply a city of 10,000 inhabitants for a few hours, said Oliver Grabette, RTE’s head of solutions. When one of the batteries stores excess power production in a region, the other two will release the equivalent amount of electricity, so that the power market isn’t affected by the grid operator’s pilot project, he said.

“It’s to tackle congestion on the network that may occur for two to three hours,” Grabette said. “In some cases, it can be an alternative that can be implemented much quicker than the reinforcement or the construction of a new line.”

The batteries will be tested from 2021 for about three years. They will then be used to help design the legal and technological framework to roll out similar power storage solutions elsewhere, he said. Grid operators aren’t usually allowed to produce or store power but RTE obtained a waiver from French regulators for this project.

For the experiment, RTE picked groups led by Total SA battery maker Saft Groupe SA and Schneider Electric SE, Engie SA and Bollore’s Blue Solutions as well as Japan’s Nidec Corp separately.

To contact the reporter on this story: Francois de Beaupuy in Paris at fdebeaupuy@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: James Herron at jherron9@bloomberg.net, Helen Robertson, Rakteem Katakey

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