CdM | Naturgy (NTGY) has begun construction of its first battery storage projects in Spain. These are batteries that will hybridise the Tabernas I and II photovoltaic parks in the province of Almería, and El Escobar and Piletas I in Las Palmas (Canary Islands), also managed by Naturgy.
These projects are part of a total portfolio of ten facilities that Naturgy plans to launch in 2026, nine of which will be associated with solar plants and one will be a stand-alone storage system in Vigo (Pontevedra), connected directly to the electricity grid.
Together, the projects will have a total power of 160 megawatts (MW) and a storage capacity of 342 MWh, with an investment of more than €80 million. According to the company, the total annual capacity of the systems will reach 125,000 MWh, equivalent to the electricity consumption of more than 38,000 households.
The new infrastructure, financed with European Union funds – NextGenerationEU under the Recovery, Transformation and Resilience Plan – will enable renewable energy to be stored and supplied at times of lower solar production.
Naturgy emphasises that battery storage is a key element in the flexibility of the energy system, as it helps to balance generation and consumption, avoid sudden drops in production and guarantee the quality of supply.
According to the Integrated National Energy and Climate Plan (PNIEC), by 2030 renewable energies will account for 81% of the Spanish electricity mix, which will require greater storage capacities. The PNIEC plans to reach 22.5 gigawatts (GW) of installed storage by that date, while the Government’s Energy Storage Strategy, published in 2021, highlights stationary batteries as an essential element for system flexibility.
