SCOTLAND is set to take the lead in the search for the Holy Grail of renewable energy with developments based on a new battery system that will store power on tap from a North Sea offshore wind farm.

Hywind Scotland, the world’s first commercial floating offshore wind farm – set to be constructed off Aberdeenshire – will power Batwind, the integrated energy storage system which is being developed in cooperation with Scottish universities and has the support of the Scottish Government and Scottish Enterprise.

Batwind is designed to store electricity generated by Hywind, which started feeding power into the National Grid last October. Batwind is currently under construction at Peterhead and is expected to start storing power in the second quarter of this year.

Yesterday the project took a giant step forward when Hywind’s joint owners Masdar, the Abu Dhabi future energy company, and Norway’s oil and gas company Statoil, announced they had agreed to use Batwind as the basis for developing the storage technology on other sources of renewables such as solar power.

In a clear vote of confidence for Batwind, the companies told Trade Arabia that “the agreement includes exploration of the battery’s potential for further applications and business opportunities.”

Masdar holds a 25 per cent stake in the project with Statoil, which owns the remaining 75 per cent and operates the wind farm. With an installed capacity of 30 megawatts (MW), Hywind Scotland is already powering approximately 6600 homes and displacing 63,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions annually.

The agreement was signed by Bader Al Lamki, Masdar’s executive director for Clean Energy, and Sebastian Bringsværd, head of Hywind development in New Energy Solutions, during Abu Dhabi Sustainability Week 2018.

Under the terms of the agreement, Statoil and Masdar will purchase, test and install Batwind at Peterhead to investigate how the battery storage solution might improve the operational and cost efficiency of offshore wind farms.

Studying Batwind’s performance should allow Statoil and Masdar to examine the integration of battery storage solutions with wind and solar power generators, and show the potential application of this Scottish technology in other locations.

Bader Al Lamki said: “The intermittent nature of solar and wind energy pose challenges for dependable power supply and grid stability.

“Energy storage is key to overcoming these challenges and unlocking the full potential of renewables.

“By partnering with Statoil on the Batwind project, Masdar is addressing this critical need for affordable, reliable and regionally optimised battery technologies and strengthening the viability of energy storage solutions.

“This has the potential to deliver far-reaching benefits in the development of renewables as a baseload power source.”

Bringsværd said: “With more renewables coming into production it will be crucial to handle storage to ensure predictable energy supply in periods without wind or sun.

“Batwind has the potential to add value by mitigating periods without wind – and by that making wind a more reliable energy producer year around. This could expand the use and market for wind and renewables in the future.”