Engie opens Belgium's largest battery park
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.
At the end of September, the first half of the battery park, with a capacity of 100 megawatts, was connected to the electricity grid. Now the other half has also been connected. In total, the 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 on 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 Flemish Brabant, and Kallo, East Flanders. 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 under way for the construction of an extension to the batteries, which would bring the total capacity to 300 megawatts in the future.
#FlandersNewsService | Flemish minister president Matthias Diependaele and Engie Belgium CEO Vincent Verbeke at the opening of a new Engie battery park in Vilvoorde, 26 January 2026 © BELGA PHOTO DIRK WAEM / © BELGA VIDEO INE GILLIS
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