German state Schleswig-Holstein promotes commercial energy storage

Schleswig-Holstein is allocating €6 million ($6.6 million) from the European Union’s European Regional Development Fund and €1.5 million in state funds to co-finance electricity storage systems. A state directive indicates investment in newly installed storage systems that obtain at least 75% of their annual energy from directly connected photovoltaic or wind farms will be supported.

Small and medium-sized companies with a headquarters, branch, or business premises in Schleswig-Holstein are eligible to apply, according to policy documents. Eligible storage systems must cost more than €200,000 and no more than €10 million. The grants available cover 40% of storage system cost for medium-sized companies and 50% for small enterprizes.

Schleswig-Holstein already generates more clean energy than it can consume for more than two-thirds of the year, for a gross renewable electricity consumption figure of more than 150%, the state directive indicated. The policy document added, “Therefore, a system-friendly load shift is being sought whereby electricity from renewable energies can be stored locally at peak times when the supply of electricity is fluctuating. In times of low, volatile electricity supply, electrical energy is fed back for use at the grid level of the electricity storage facility and the subordinate grid levels in a system-friendly manner.”

Alliance 90/The Greens politician Joschka Knuth, state secretary for energy transition and climate protection in Schleswig-Holstein, said, “There is currently still a gap in the economic viability, especially for smaller storage systems in the single or double-digit megawatt range. We are closing this gap here.”

Energy storage systems are an important building block for Schleswig-Holstein on its way to becoming a climate-neutral industrial state in 2040.

From pv magazine Germany.