The era of large-scale batteries is dawning in Switzerland

The era of large-scale batteries is dawning in Switzerland SRF

Large quantities of batteries are set to be installed in Switzerland over the coming months and years. This is according to research by Swiss public broadcaster SRF.

Switzerland’s largest battery to date is located in Kappel in the north of the country. The storage system, operated by energy supplier Primeo Energie, was inaugurated last Friday and can store around 80 megawatt-hours of electricity. That is enough to supply around 30,000 households with electricity for two hours.

However, the Kappel unit will soon have to relinquish its title as Switzerland’s largest battery. In September, the new contender for the largest battery is set to come into operation in Gurtnellen in central Switzerland. It will eventually supply just under 120,000 households with electricity for two hours. These two examples show that the era of large-scale batteries is just beginning in Switzerland.

The secret to the success of these batteries in Switzerland lies in their integration with solar installations. When there is plenty of solar power, the electricity can be temporarily stored in the batteries and released again in the evening after sunset.

“In future, batteries will take over the day-night balancing,” explains Christian Schaffner, Head of the Energy Science Centre at the federal technology institute ETH Zurich.

Expansion is happening at breakneck speed

Batteries have not yet become a major topic of public discussion.

“One reason is that development is progressing very rapidly: the projects can be built quickly,” says Christian Schaffner. “We’re talking about one to two years from the investment decision to installation.”

This is also due to the fact that these batteries are considered safe and are not a subject of public controversy. This is in contrast to other, hotly debated energy issues such as wind turbines or nuclear power stations.

This rapid expansion is currently evident throughout Switzerland. According to research by SRF, batteries with a capacity of at least 150 MWh have been installed across the country in recent years. And a further 280 MWh will be added by the end of the year.

But the real wave of projects is yet to come: further storage capacity of at least 4,350 MWh is planned by 2030. In purely mathematical terms, this would be enough to supply over four million households with electricity for two hours. And new projects are being added all the time.

Batteries are a sound investment

All battery projects have one thing in common: they are all privately funded, meaning without government subsidies.

“This is a purely commercial venture. And that’s a good thing,” says Cédric Christmann, managing director of Primeo Energie in reference to the Kappel project.

The batteries are usually manufactured in China and permanently installed in containers. The containers are then shipped to Europe and transported to Switzerland by rail or lorry. The facility in Kappel comprises a total of 20 containers. SRF

The business model works as follows: at midday, when solar power is cheap, Primeo Energie stores the electricity. In the evening, it is sold back at a higher price and fed into the grid. Alternatively, the energy supplier also sells the electricity to the national transmission operator Swissgrid, which uses it to balance out fluctuations in the electricity grid.

Pumped-storage plants and batteries complement each other

“Batteries aren’t there to fill the electricity gap in winter,” says Christian Schaffner from ETH Zurich. But they could help to conserve water reserves during the winter. As batteries increasingly balance out fluctuations within a single day, they take the strain off the large pumped-storage plants in the Alps. This means more water can be retained for use later in seasonal storage, emphasises Schaffner.

Data analysis

In Switzerland, large battery energy storage systems (BESS) have not yet been centrally recorded. Swisssolar does, however, collect data for its “Swiss Battery Monitor” on batteries installed in private households (behind the distribution network, known as ‘behind-the-meter’ storage). The association estimates these capacities at around 1,500 MWh for last year.

There is no reporting requirement for larger BESS systems (connected to the distribution network, known as ‘front-of-the-meter’ storage).

SRF’s compilation is based on publicly available sources and information from operators or manufacturers.

Furthermore, SRF has only included storage systems with a capacity of 5 MW or more. Storage systems used, for example, for emergency power supply in hospitals or industrial facilities have also been excluded.

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Translated from German, sub-edited by Anand Chandrasekhar