TotalEnergies’ Unit to Build Battery Storage Site in Japan to Help Balance Grid

(Credit: TotalEnergies)

French oil major TotalEnergies' subsidiary Saft has been selected to build a 1 gigawatt-hour battery energy storage system in Japan's Fukushima, the company said on Thursday.

Part of a larger project by Asian renewable developer Gurin Energy, the system will be able to provide over 240 megawatts of power for four hours.

Construction is expected to begin next year, Total said in a statement.

Battery storage systems are designed to stabilize electricity grids that receive volatile power swings from intermittent sources such as solar and wind farms.

Japan plans to install 10 gigawatts worth of energy storage capacity as it seeks to increase the share of renewables in its electricity mix to nearly 40% by the end of the decade, up from around 27% currently.

"Asia is a critical region for the sustained, long-term growth of Saft's Energy Storage System (ESS) business," Vincent Le Quintrec, Saft's ESS sales and marketing director said in a statement.

TotalEnergies itself operates four solar parks in Japan and has bid for tenders in the country's nascent offshore wind market, as part of its strategy to develop an integrated electricity business alongside oil and gas.

(Reuters - Reporting by America Hernandez in ParisEditing by Tomasz Janowski)