Groundbreaking at the Green Turtle site in Belgium. Image: Giga Storage.

RWE has taken a final investment decision (FID) on 400MW/1.1GWh BESS in the Netherlands with construction to start in due course, while Giga Storage has started building its 2.8GWh Green Turtle project in Belgium. Both are set to be commissioned in early 2028.

RWE to build congestion-relieving BESS in Netherlands

Power firm RWE has taken FID on the 2.75-hour battery energy storage system (BESS) to be built at the Moerdijk power station site, it said yesterday (21 September).

Commissioning is planned for the second quarter of 2028, and it will contribute to the system integration of the 795MW OranjeWind offshore project, which is a joint venture between RWE and TotalEnergies. The BESS will comprise 208 lithium-ion containers (a little over 5MWh each)

Mark Lentjes, regional director of grid operator TenneT Southern Netherland said the BESS would act as a congestion reliever. It will do this via ‘steering agreements’ with TenneT, whereby it will be dispatched to relieve congestion in the Noord-Brabant region. That means that space can be created on the grid for parties on the waiting list.

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It is not the first such project in the Netherlands; we reported on one earlier this year. Other projects have been given ‘time-dependent transport rights’ (TDTR), similar to a flexible connection agreement (FCA) in Germany

The Moerdijk benefits from a location close to the 150,000V high-voltage substation at Moerdijk-Noord, where it will help to alleviate the regional bottleneck, which in turn has an impact on congestion across the whole region, Lentjes said. The project can also provide advanced grid services such as instantaneous reserve (inertia).

RWE is highly active in BESS in the Netherlands, its home country of Germany as well as the US and Australia, see all coverage of it here.

Giga Storage starts building Belgium’s largest BESS project

BESS owner-operator Giga Storage has launched construction on its Green Turtle project, a 700MW/2,800MWh system, one of the largest in Europe.

Announced last week (17 September), the start of construction comes a few months after financing was secured and a letter of intent (LOI) was agreed with Tesla to supply the project.

Tesla will provide 640 of its lithium iron phosphate-based (LFP) Megapack 3 BESS units under a full EPC wrap contract, while civil works are being carried out by Stadbader Contractors. We did a deep-dive on the Megapack 3 product in a recent ESN Premium article.

Commissioning is scheduled for March 2028. Preparatory earthworks and roadworks commenced in mid-August and now the batteries, cabling, and high-voltage installations will begin.

Like RWE’s Dutch project, Green Turtle benefits from close proximity to a high-voltage line, the 380kV Van Eyck-Gramme line. Grid operator Elia is building a new high-voltage substation at the site to accommodate the project.

Giga Storage, owned by investor InfraVia since 2024, is based in the Netherlands and also is active there, recently launching construction on a 1.2GWh BESS there last year, and it is also building a 1.4GWh one in Germany.