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Greenvolt begins building 600 MW/2.4 GWh BESS in Poland

47 points by msalsas ago | 27 comments

KaiserPro |next [-]

2.4 gwhr is a monster of a battery.

For reference the UK has about 7gw output of battery (assuming all on at the same time. I don;t have the capacity though.) The UK is one of the more mature grid battery places in europe.

msalsas |next |previous [-]

Greenvolt Group has started construction of a 600 MW/2.4 GWh battery energy storage system (BESS) in Poland, with commercial operations targeted for the end of 2027.

toomuchtodo |root |parent [-]

Huge, this helps wean Poland off of coal.

varispeed |root |parent [-]

and industry

toomuchtodo |root |parent [-]

Industry can electrify or sunset. “Work is hard.” The energy potential is well above the demand curve, just have to build the orchestration infrastructure (low carbon generation, batteries, transmission, district heating, flexible load demand response, etc). Enough sunlight falls on the Earth in thirty minutes to power humanity for a year, the inability to harness this potential energy is the problem being solved for. It's easy to go faster: simply direct fossil fuel capital and subsidies to the technologies I enumerate above. To not go faster is a choice. We could make different choices.

https://cleantechnica.com/2026/08/30/poland-coal-capacity-tr...

https://ember-energy.org/countries-and-regions/poland/

https://pyrtkoanalytics.com/poland-in-the-energy-transition-...

https://www.pv-magazine.com/2025/12/29/poland-projected-to-r...

https://app.electricitymaps.com/map/zone/PL/fifteen_minutes

https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/installed-solar-pv-capaci... (already out of date due to solar PV deployment velocity, >3TW of solar PV has been installed globally as of this year)

The World Crossed a Major Solar Milestone [3TW] - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49151977 - August 2026

(Poland is expected to add 3-4GW of solar per year, and has hundreds of GWs of combined wind [onshore and offshore] and solar PV potential)

usrnm |root |parent [-]

> Industry can electrify or sunset

The much more realistic third option is just moving somewhere else

toomuchtodo |root |parent [-]

Tariffs to equalize if needed until electrification is complete. China is electrifying the fastest with low carbon generation. Other countries should try to keep up. Renewables and batteries are the cheapest form of firm generation in 90%+ of the world. That’s a competitive advantage. Why would you move industry to where power was not low carbon and therefore more expensive?

https://tradingeconomics.com/poland/exports-by-country (most Polish exports go to other EU countries or the US)

https://tradingeconomics.com/poland/imports-by-country

https://ember-energy.org/latest-updates/batteries-now-cheap-...

https://ember-energy.org/latest-insights/how-cheap-is-batter...

varispeed |root |parent [-]

> Tariffs to equalize if needed until electrification is complete.

Brain dead. Corporations will simply drop the market or consumers will pay higher prices.

toomuchtodo |root |parent [-]

¯\_(ツ)_/¯ economics speak for themselves. Quote the subthread in five years when most of Poland’s coal and gas generation has been phased out.

https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/web/products-eurostat-news/w/d...

https://ember-energy.org/latest-insights/eu-national-targets...

https://www.euronews.com/2026/08/07/how-europes-drought-expo...

mypalmike |next |previous [-]

Meanwhile the US is doubling down on fossil fuels because… reasons.

thechao |root |parent |next [-]

I don't know about other states, but Texas has about 18GW of BESS, already (https://www.cleanview.co/power-projects/operating/battery-st...). We're planning another ~177GW (https://www.ercot.com/files/docs/2026/04/16/ERCOT-Monthly-Op...).

kieranmaine |root |parent |next |previous [-]

The BESS market is doing OK in the US. Politicians will come and go but the fundamentals of BESS are solid, so I don't see why the installed base won't keep increasing in the US.

Battery storage capacity averaged 70% growth over the last three years - https://www.eia.gov/todayinenergy/detail.php?id=67925

> During the first six months of 2026, operators added another 8.3 GW of battery storage capacity, reaching nearly 52 GW of nameplate battery storage capacity

ElevenLathe |root |parent |next [-]

What's a "GW of battery storage capacity"? Do they mean gigawatt-hour? (sidenote: how scary that the DoE is the one making this error?)

kieranmaine |root |parent [-]

> What's a "GW of battery storage capacity"?

This is the maximum amount of power it can dispatch. I think they use it intentionally so they can compare it to other generation sources.

For example this spreadsheet [1], with data for 2023, contains figures for "power capacity megawatts" and "energy capacity megawatthours".

1. https://www.eia.gov/analysis/studies/electricity/batterystor...

kieranmaine |root |parent [-]

This source has some useful stats on duration: https://seia.org/research-resources/energy-storage-market-ou...

> In Q2 2026, battery energy stationary storage (BESS) installations reached 20.2 GWh

> total module manufacturing capacity to over 100 GWh.

> Storage Deployed in 2025: 57.6 GWh

wffurr |root |parent |previous [-]

How much faster would it go if the feds were helping things along instead of actively hindering?

pfdietz |root |parent [-]

The government likes to get in front of a parade and pretend they are leading it.

Rebelgecko |root |parent |next |previous [-]

YMMV depending on where in the US you are. California has like 10x'd it's battery storage in a couple years, to the point where it's the main source of electricity during some time slots where we used to be dependent on natty gas.

Edit: although it looks like in recent days, fossil fuels reign supreme once the sun goes down. I guess we don't have enough batteries for the current heat wave

NetMageSCW |root |parent [-]

Texas also has large amounts installed and growing.

iknowstuff |root |parent |next |previous [-]

We have one of the world's largest BESS installations in California. Calm down.

burnte |root |parent |previous [-]

Not really. The market is still moving quickly towards renewables. It's only some conservative politicians in the US that are making noise about fossil fuels, not the market.

smallerize |root |parent [-]

The market does not fix the administration paying wind projects billions of dollars to stop development.

The market does not fix the administration forcing coal plants to stay open even when they are losing money.

The market does not fix the administration cancelling grants for clean energy projects and subsidies for electric cars, and adding tariffs to solar panel imports.

And US car manufacturers are enthusiastically moving away from their efficiency goals. That market is not moving quickly to renewables.

Schiendelman |root |parent [-]

Paying a wind company billions of dollars in damages is basically a wash, they spend that on another installation.

morninglight |previous [-]

Which battery technology and where are the sourcing it?

shortcrct |root |parent |next [-]

The article says the batteries are sourced from BYD, and it's likely lithium iron phosphate batteries.

cassepipe |root |parent |next |previous [-]

Article doesn't mention but says the company is BYD Energy Storage which apparenly uses Lithium Iron Phosphate (LFP) battery technology (specifically, Lithium Iron Phosphate / LiFePO₄

onlyrealcuzzo |root |parent |previous [-]

> BYD Energy Storage will supply the battery technology.

third sentence...