Thank you! Your submission has been received!
Oops! Something went wrong while submitting the form.
Subscribe
French energy group ENGIE has announced the development of its first hybrid energy project in Europe, co-locating wind energy generation with battery energy storage systems (BESS). The facility is being built in Băleni, Galați County, located in southeastern Romania.
The storage asset is being installed directly within ENGIE’s operational 50 MW Băleni wind farm, which has been active since 2013. The grid-connected battery will feature a power capacity of 5 MW and a storage capacity of 10 MWh, allowing it to deliver maximum electricity output to the grid for a continuous two-hour window. The unit is scheduled to be fully commissioned by the end of this year.
The deployment is designed to smooth out the intermittency of wind generation and mitigate network imbalances. According to statements by ENGIE Romania, the technical configuration centers on highly stable Lithium Iron Phosphate (LFP) chemistry:
Surplus Absorption: The system will absorb excess clean electricity during periods when localized wind production exceeds the immediate carrying capacity of the regional transmission grid.
System Balancing: The primary function of the battery will be providing rapid system and balancing services, including active frequency regulation for the national electricity network.
Scalable Infrastructure: While the project initiates with a two-hour delivery window, the core engineering footprint has been designed to easily scale delivery from two to four hours should future transmission system requirements dictate greater flexibility.
The Galați project marks the initial phase of a broader grid-modernization campaign spearheaded by ENGIE Romania to support the group’s overarching global goal: achieving 95 GW of installed renewable and storage capacity by 2030.
Concurrently, ENGIE is developing a much larger utility-scale standalone battery project in Șelimbăr, Sibiu County. The company recently secured full project rights and all necessary construction permits for the Sibiu development. Spanning a two-hectare plot, the future Șelimbăr facility will deliver 80 MW of power capacity and 160 MWh of storage capacity, also utilizing robust LFP battery technology.
The technical deployment of large-scale battery storage, grid balancing strategies, and the cross-border integration of renewable assets across the region will be primary focal points at the upcoming Go Net Zero Energy summit. The event serves as a central platform for Central and Eastern European energy leaders, regulatory bodies, and utilities to collaborate on the operational roadmaps necessary to achieve full decarbonization.
The ORLEN Group has officially commissioned a 42.2 MW solar photovoltaic (PV) farm at its Mažeikiai refinery in Lithuania. Expected to generate approximately 45 GWh of clean electricity annually for ORLEN Lietuva, the project marks the Group’s largest on-site renewable energy installation to date and serves to cut operational overhead while accelerating decarbonization across its industrial asset portfolio.
Delivered by Białystok-based contractor Electrum, the €35 million investment—which secured €2.5 million from the European Union’s Modernisation Fund—highlights the export of Polish engineering expertise into major CEE energy infrastructure projects.
Kořensko hydroelectric power plant is currently undergoing the largest modernization in its 34-year history. Operated by ČEZ as part of the Vltava cascade, the multi-million-crown overhaul will replace core machinery across both of its turbine units, resulting in safer, greener, and significantly more efficient operations by next spring.
Enefit, the electricity subsidiary of Estonia's Eesti Energia, has officially opened the Strzałkowo solar park in central Poland. The newly launched facility marks a major milestone for the company, standing as its largest single renewable energy project in the Polish market to date.
The Strzałkowo facility boasts an impressive installed capacity of 45 megawatts (MW). Operational estimates suggest the site will generate approximately 45 gigawatt-hours (GWh) of clean electricity annually.