Investors in renewable energy production units and storage capacity are faced with a choice: to invest in new units or to increase the complexity of existing investments, said Iulia Meiroșu, CFO of Enexus.
“What we are seeing in our customers’ development plans is that all those who now have fleets in operation have a choice between investing in new capacity or increasing the complexity of the energy capacity they operate. We also see a generalised demand to add colocated capacity to existing capacity. This is good news for us at Enexus, but more than that, it points to a clear market trend,” Meiroșu said at the conference “Stepping stones for the BESS technologies development”, organised by Energynomics.
In fact, in March, Enexus will start testing its second storage capacity in Mures county. Last year, the company installed, together with Huawei, the first colocated photovoltaic + battery capacity in Romania, in the Enexus park in Cojani.
“For Enexus, integrating batteries into power generation units is a major area of focus. For small and medium-sized manufacturers, adding batteries makes a lot of economic sense,” said Meiroșu.
She said the return on investment in energy storage units next to PV parks is significantly higher, rising from 11-12% without batteries to 15-18% once the storage unit becomes operational. In addition, installing batteries is seen by investors in the sector as a way of optimising returns and ensuring stable long-term income. For this reason, financiers are willing to allocate a larger part of the CAPEX of the whole project to finance the installation of batteries. But a key issue remains the existence of a management capable of efficiently managing both energy production and storage, Meiroșu emphasised. It is also currently the best financial solution for an investor to have both production and energy storage capacity, not just one of them.
The conference “Stepping stones for the BESS technologies development” was organised by Energynomics, with the support of our partners: AJ Brand, Alive Capital, BCR, Big Store, Elektra Renewable Support, EnergoBit, Enery, Enevo Group, Enexus. EVOLVE Energy Management Solutions, Huawei, Nofar Energy, Photomate, Prime Batteries Technology, Pixii AS, Renomia Gallagher, smartPulse, SolarToday, SolaX Power, Think Blu Solution, Wiren, WTW Romania, YEO.