BASF Switches On 5.8 MWh NAS Battery System in Belgium

• Even as Lithium-Ion batteries reign for vehicle usages, various other cell chemistry's are being proactively checked out for stationary storage.
• The emphasis is on attaining storage services that come with a lower expense, with even more sustainably sourced basic materials.

German chemicals company BASF's subsidiary BNB has set up and activated a power storage system comprising four NAS battery containers, which have been incorporated into the electrical power grid at BASF's Verbund site in Antwerp, Belgium. NAS batteries are sodium-sulfur batteries with high energy web content that are created for fixed power storage.

With this long-term job, the BASF team wishes to test numerous running situations and better explore the possibility of NAS batteries. Given that 2019, BASF New Business (BNB) has actually been complying in this sector with the Japanese porcelains maker NGK Insulators Ltd. to market and additional create NAS batteries.

" By having our own battery system, we get straight experience in long-term procedures of energy storage systems as well as we can differ as well as evaluate the connected infrastructure. We can additionally analyze numerous use cases and business versions. This enables us to encourage our customers even more comprehensively in the preparation and application of their projects and also to collect essential data for additional growth," claimed Frank Prechtl, Director of E-Power Management at BNB.

The battery system in Antwerp has an energy storage space ability of 5.8 megawatt hours (MWh) and also a complete outcome of 950 kilowatts (kW). Power electronics, consisting of a power conversion system (PCS), are required in order to use the electric energy kept in the battery. The Swiss company Indrivetec AG has created a power conversion system for NAS batteries that has actually been installed in Antwerp and also will certainly be showcased at the EES (electrical energy storage) Europe trade fair in Munich, Germany, from October 6-8, 2021.

NAS batteries help in reducing energy costs as well as ecological effect

Electrical energy distributors, grid drivers and power customers can benefit from making use of NAS batteries, says BASF. NAS battery systems support the enhancing integration of fluctuating renewable energy sources, such as wind and solar, into the grid. These batteries can be charged when excess power is created and afterwards give electricity each time when need is greater. They can supply huge volumes of electrical energy over a duration of 4 to eight hrs as well as thus decouple electricity generation and need.

Moreover, NAS batteries are used for the stablizing of electrical energy supply for commercial consumers, grid upgrade deferment, and also micro/off grids. Made use of in such applications, these batteries are an important foundation for implementing the power shift.

BASF and also NGK working together to additional create NAS batteries

BASF mentions that it has actually been extremely working with enhancing sodium-sulfur battery innovation for many years and adds that NGK's NAS battery was the globe's first commercialized megawatt-class battery with the capacity to keep more than 1 MWh of electrical energy for hrs.

In 2019, BNB and also NGK became part of sales partnership agreement for NAS batteries and a joint growth agreement for next-generation sodium-sulfur batteries. To expand the application range of NAS batteries and touch new markets, the two companions have actually been integrating BASF's exceptional chemistry knowledge with NGK's experience in battery style and also production. Via its worldwide sales network, BNB markets tailor-made NAS battery systems as well as provides technological assistance for installment, start-up, maintenance as well as recurring operations.