Nordic salmon farm demonstrates economic and environmental case for battery storage

A Tesvolt battery energy storage system (BESS) installed on a Norwegian offshore platform. Image: Tesvolt

A salmon farm in Norway will become greener after adding a Tesvolt battery energy storage system that reduces the running time of its diesel generators by 18 hours a day, saving maintenance costs and working time.

The company emailed information about a project to deploy a 158kWh lithium-ion battery on a floating platform on the island of Selsøyvær, a few miles off the coast of Norway.

Kvarøy, a fish farming company, decided to make its daily operations more sustainable. Before adding the Tesvolt system, at least one of the three existing diesel generators on the platform was running 24/7, but now this has been reduced to only three hours per day.

Battery systems for offshore floating platforms. Image: Kvarøy

The peak energy consumption of the remote control system of the offshore floating platform fluctuates greatly. Sometimes, just turning on its lighting system still burns a lot of diesel. Every time the fuel needs to be refueled, the diesel must also be transported to the platform. In this case, the energy storage system reduces the demand for fuel. Tesvolt claims that the system can reduce diesel consumption by 60%.

The company said the new site required a "special" solution. Together with Norwegian solar equipment supplier Kverneland Energi, Tesvolt installed a 120kW/158kWh system that is remotely monitored and controlled via the internet from land. The system's power electronics were supplied by Siemens.

Energi’s technical director Jonas Kverneland said that based on his own market research, Tesvolt’s system’s ability to undergo two charging cycles per day is unique in a way that makes it particularly suitable for salmon farms.

“Many suppliers only run one cycle a day, which is not feasible for salmon farms,” Kverneland said.

It takes 18 months for a generation of salmon to reach market. Using the battery system, in addition to reducing emissions and noise vibrations from the generators, Kvarøy will save at least €150,000 ($165,000) per year, and Tesvolt predicts that each generation of farming could save €200,000. At the same time, the oil in the generators now only needs to be changed twice a year, instead of once a month, a process that costs €1,000 a day.

While small in scale, the project very clearly highlights the economics of using battery storage at decentralized commercial or industrial sites. It echoes another recent project at a salmon farm in Cordova, Alaska. In that project, Saft provided a 1MWh battery system matched to a hydro-diesel microgrid operated by the local electricity provider, Cordova Electric Cooperative.

(Original source: Energy Storage News New Energy Network Comprehensive)