The Son Orlandis system is the first vanadium redox flow-based energy storage plant to be built by Endesa; the largest to be paired with solar in Europe.

Spanish utility Endesa Enel Green Power España (the largest electricity company in Spain and the second largest in Portugal) has commissioned an energy storage system utilizing a 1.1-megawatt vanadium redox flow battery (VFRB) connected to the 3.34 MW Son Orlandis solar plant in Mallorca, Spain.

In 2023, the Balearic Islands government awarded Endesa a 100% green electricity contract to supply an estimated 270 gigawatt-hours per year of energy from renewable sources. The Son Orlandis system is the first vanadium redox flow-based energy storage plant of its kind that Endesa has built in Spain and the largest to be paired with solar in Europe.

This system was built in partnership with Largo, a Canadian manufacturer with expertise in microgrid and island energy solutions, which has provided its VCHARGE cooling system, a necessary addition to VRFBs due to their poor thermal regulation.

Endesa

Endesa has commissioned a vanadium redox flow battery system at the Son Orlandis solar plant in Mallorca, Spain.

The electrolyte in redox flow battery systems stores energy in an aqueous solution that never degrades, even under continuous maximum power and depth of discharge cycling. Despite its thermal challenges, it can be easily reused at the end of its life without degrading and without a negative impact on the environment.

"This type of battery has the advantage of having a useful life of over 20 years without suffering any degradation, which makes them very interesting to guarantee long-term storage," the company said in a statement. "In addition, they offer enormous security benefits."

In a renewable energy auction for the Balearic Islands, Endesa secured 72.4 MW of solar capacity. Auctions like these help countries procure clean power at competitive prices by government-set rules where renewable energy providers bid against each other for contracts to generate energy for the buyers, who can select the seller offering energy at various benefits providing cost reductions, economic development and job creation, grid resiliency, emissions reductions, or other goals.

The Spanish archipelago aims to become free of self-generated CO2 emissions by 2050 by making its energy system 100% based on renewables. Solar PV currently represents most of the renewable energy capacity that has been built across the Balearics thus far, at around 80 MW of installed capacity.