RWE is continuing to expand its battery storage portfolio and is constructing a new large scale storage facility on the site of the Hambach opencast mine, Germany.
The battery storage facility is being built near the village of Niederzier in the district of Düren. Preparatory work on a three-hectare site began at the end of 2025. The first of a total of 128 lithium-ion battery containers have already been delivered. The large scale storage facility will have a capacity of 236 MW and a storage capacity of 470 MWh. The facility is scheduled to come on stream in 2027.
Nikolaus Valerius, CEO RWE Generation, commented: “In Germany alone, RWE is currently building large scale storage facilities with a capacity of around 1.7 GW. The battery storage facility in Hambach is also a powerful partner for wind and solar power. It will balance out fluctuations in the electricity grid in a fraction of a second. The site, situated in the heart of the Rhineland mining region, offers ideal conditions for this.”
Thomas Körber, a member of the RWE Power Executive Board responsible for lignite, noted: “The Rhineland mining region remains an energy hub, and that is good news. In addition to renewable energy plants, we are building storage facilities on opencast mining areas that are no longer needed. This is an important contribution to the energy transition, directly from the opencast mine.”
The battery storage facility in Hambach will play a key role in ensuring the stability of the power grid by, among other things, providing balancing energy. Furthermore, the plant is designed to provide future grid-support services, such as inertia. At the Hambach opencast mine, RWE has already commissioned three solar power plants with a total capacity of around 50 MWac, as well as an integrated battery storage facility with a capacity of 4.1 MW/8.1 MWh. A few kilometres away, in the area earmarked for the future Manheimer Bucht development, RWE is constructing an additional 14.8 MWac solar park alongside a battery storage facility designed for 80 MWh capacity.
For more news and technical articles from the global renewable industry, read the latest issue of Energy Global magazine.
Energy Global’s Summer 2026 issue
The Summer issue of 2026 is out now! The new issue starts with a regional report on Latin America and the Caribbean, considering the benefits and challenges of renewable energy development in the region. The issue also covers topics such as lubricants, digitalisation, the importance of ports, battery storage technology, and more! With contributors from industry leaders including ABB, WindEurope, Sungrow, among others, this is an issue not to miss.