What has been described as the country’s first BESS has been installed at Solar Global’s 683 kW Prakšice PV plant. Dutch Ambassador, Kees Klompenhouwer attended the inauguration.

The 1 MW storage system, supplied by Dutch company, Alfen was delivered and installed within two and a half months of the order being received. pv magazine has requested more information regarding project costs and technical specs.

“The battery system will accumulate energy from the sun to be available when there is a lack of power in the grid and electricity needs to be released,” said Vítězslav Skopal, founder of the Solar Global Group in a statement released.

“Alfen has experience with many types of storage applications, ranging from smoothening large scale renewable energy sources to load balancing for the charging of electric vehicles,” added Andreas Plenk, global sales director energy storage at Alfen. “Combining renewables with energy storage is gaining momentum throughout Europe. Parties such as Solar Global are realizing that storage will enhance the return-of-investment of solar PV and wind farms.”

Global Solar said it will build a 10 MW storage system at Ochoz, located in the Olomouc Region next year. It was not clear if Alfen would deliver the system; and no other details were made available on costs or timelines.

In a statement released on September 5 about the 1 MW BESS project, František Smolka, CEO of Solar Global stated, “Energy storage will play a crucial role in the large scale roll-out of renewable energy. With this project we prepare ourselves for the future, and I expect to implement many more of these systems in the region.”

Czech Republic’s Solar Global currently has around 100 MW of installed solar PV capacity, across ground-mounted and rooftop plants.