Accumulation, 500 MW authorised in summer in Galatina (Lecce)

With the acceleration of authorisations also in view of the first Macse auction called by Terna for 30 September, the go-ahead for the forthcoming development of stand-alone, industrial-scale electrochemical battery systems capable of absorbing the electricity produced at peak times by renewable plants and then feeding it into the grid at times of need (e.g. during the night when photovoltaic parks are not working), helping to balance the entire national electricity system, is multiplying. These are projects that are still on paper and may not see the light of day. It is however interesting to see where they might arise.

Analysing the single authorisations granted by the Ministry of the Environment from May to 1 September, there are some municipalities that stand out for the amount of capacity approved in the various projects. In first place in the special classification is Galatina (Lecce), where the special-purpose companies Heci Helios 2, 6, 7, 11, 12 - traceable to the Korean multinational Hanwha Energy - have applied for the construction of five plants with a capacity of 100 MW each, thus totalling 500.

Instead, the storage capacity authorised in Palo del Colle (Bari) is 356 MW, where Acl Spv 2, Pvexo Apollo 1 and Società Storage del Colle are planning plants of 164, 96 and 96 MW respectively. In Benevento, the requests authorised by Mase reach 272 MW: 50 are being developed by Bess Benevento, 120 by Energy Total Capital Bess Benevento, and 102 by Neoen Renewables Italia. Three projects totalling 244 MW are being developed by the municipality of Andria (Barletta-Andria-Trani), two plants totalling 220 MW by Sessa Aurunca (Caserta), and two other plants totalling 200 MW by the municipality of Nardò (Lecce).

After all, Apulia ranks first in Italy for grid connection requests for storage projects. According to Terna's data updated on 31 July, there are 710 dossiers pending in the region, for a total of 80.2 GW (almost a third of the national total).

Meanwhile, faced with the multiplication of authorised storage projects, local administrations are saying no and launching appeals. The latest in order of time: on 30 August, the Sardinia region announced its decision to appeal to the TAR and "in all the competent administrative and judicial venues" against a 72 MW plant authorised by the ministry in July in the municipality of Mogorella (Oristano), for which it had already expressed a negative opinion at the Services Conference. On 29 August, the municipality of Fano officially notified its appeal to the Lazio TAR against another Mase single authorisation decree, also issued in July, which gave the go-ahead for the construction of a 175 MW battery plant in Carrara, in the municipality of Fano.