Engie opens Belgium's largest battery park in Vilvoorde
Belgium's largest battery park was officially inaugurated in Vilvoorde on Monday. The battery park, owned by French energy company Engie, has a capacity of 200 megawatts. Flemish energy minister Hans Bonte and minister president Matthias Diependaele were given a behind-the-scenes tour of the site.
At the end of September, the first half of the battery park, with a capacity of 100 megawatts, was already connected to the electricity grid. Now the other half has also been connected. In total, the battery park, which consists of 320 lithium-ion modules, has an energy storage capacity of 800 megawatt hours.
This storage capacity is sufficient to supply 100,000 households with electricity for four hours: in that case, the batteries would go from fully charged to completely empty. In practice, a constant balance is sought between charging the batteries and injecting energy into the electricity grid. In this way, the battery park contributes to the stability of the high-voltage grid and to the further development of renewable energy.
The site has been managed by Engie since the 1950s and has been used successively to generate electricity from coal and oil, then gas, and now also for electricity storage. The distinctive cooling towers at the River Senne are a reminder of this history and will remain in place.
Engie is also working on the construction of battery parks in Drogenbos, in the province of Flemish Brabant, and Kallo, East Flanders province. In Drogenbos, the capacity will be 80 megawatts, and in Kallo, 100 megawatts. Both projects will be commissioned in the course of 2027.
At the same site in Vilvoorde, preparations are underway for the construction of an extension to the batteries, which would bring the total capacity to 300 megawatts in the future.
#FlandersNewsService | The opening of a new battery park of energy company Engie in Vilvoorde © BELGA PHOTO DIRK WAEM + © BELGA VIDEO INE GILLIS
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