Shell has been continuously rebranding itself as an energy company and not just another oil company, moving further in that direction, it has signed a power purchase agreement with the developers of what is being called “the largest battery in Europe.”
Shell has agreed to purchase the output of the 100 MW/100 MWh Minety power storage project in Wiltshire which is expected to be complete by the end of this year.
It is comprised of two 50 MW batteries and is being developed by CNIC — China’s sovereign wealth fund — and China Huaneng Group, a utility company owned by the Chinese government.
The electricity stored and traded by the Minety battery storage facility will be managed by Limejump, a UK grid technology firm acquired by Shell last year. Limejump operates the largest network of batteries in the UK
They hve also purchased German battery company sonnen and First Utility, a UK based electricity and broadband provider which it renamed Shell Energy.
According to UK energy regulator Ofgem, the typical UK household uses around 10 kilowatt-hours a day of electricity. If that is true (people in the UK seem to use that much energy just to brew tea every day), the Minety battery should provide enough electricity to power 10,000 homes for a full day. Or 40,000 homes for 6 hours. A megawatt-hour of electricity is a megawatt-hour of electricity and when it’s gone, it’s gone.
Reference- Clean Technica, Shell online newsroom, The Guardian