Eni Completes Its Biggest Battery Storage Project in Texas

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Eni Completes Its Biggest Battery Storage Project in Texas

Eni SpA has wrapped up construction for the company’s largest battery storage system, the 200-megawatt Guajillo plant in Webb County, Texas. Equipped with lithium-ion LFP batteries, the facility is scheduled to start commercial operation by mid-2025. It is intended to supply power when market demand is greatest, the Italian state-backed energy major said. The project […]

Eni SpA has wrapped up construction for the company’s largest battery storage system, the 200-megawatt Guajillo plant in Webb County, Texas.

Equipped with lithium-ion LFP batteries, the facility is scheduled to start commercial operation by mid-2025. It is intended to supply power when market demand is greatest, the Italian state-backed energy major said.

The project is under Eni Plenitude SpA Società Benefit, specifically Plenitude subsidiary Eni New Energy U.S. Inc. Plenitude is Eni’s renewable energy arm.

“The plant was built right next to one of Plenitude’s largest operating solar farms, Corazon Solar Farm, also to maximize operational synergies and consolidate the company’s presence in the area, where it operates on about 800 hectares site”, Eni said.

“Guajillo will play an important role in stabilizing the local power grid, contributing to the efficiency of the entire region’s power system, which is experiencing a very strong growth in electricity generation from renewable sources”, it added.

Patrick Monino, head of Plenitude Renewables North America and managing director of Eni New Energy U.S., said, “Large lithium-ion batteries are a rapidly expanding technology, enabling an increasing penetration of renewable energies in electrical systems”.

“Guajillo’s completion positions Plenitude at the forefront also in this sector and consolidates our presence in the U.S. renewable energy market, where we have reached 1.5 GW [gigawatts] of installed capacity”, Monino added.

Earlier Eni said its installed generation capacity from renewable sources has risen to four GW in 2024, a goal it outlined in its 2024–27 plan published March 14, 2024. That is thanks to about 400 megawatts (MW) added in Spain, which now hosts 950 MW of Plenitude’s renewable energy (RE) capacity.

A further 820 MW is under construction in Spain, expected to be completed 2025 and 2026, Eni said in a press release January 7, 2025.

Globally, Eni through Plenitude plans to reach over eight GW of installed RE capacity by 2027, and 15 GW by 2030.

So far, besides achieving four GW, Plenitude also has a market base of 10 million users in Europe for the sale of energy and energy solutions, as well as a network of nearly 22,000 charging points for electric vehicles, according to Eni.

In other energy transition investments, Eni last year announced financial and operational restructuring for chemical arm Versalis SpA and biofuel subsidiary Enilive SpA that involves new capital for both units and a farm-out of a quarter of Enilive’s equity.

Global investment firm KKR & Co. Inc. signed an agreement with Eni to buy 25 percent of Enilive’s share capital for EUR 2.438 billion ($2.5 billion), Eni said October 24, 2024.

Eni and KKR are to inject into Enilive new capital of EUR 500 million each under the agreement.

Enilive produces biomethane, sustainable aviation fuel and other biofuels, as well as offers electric vehicle charging and car sharing.

The new plan for Versalis, which makes basic chemicals, chemical products including plastics and biochemical products such as biolubricants, involves an investment of around EUR 2 billion to curb Versalis’ emissions by approximately one million metric tons of carbon dioxide.

“It includes the set-up of new industrial plants consistent with the energy transition and decarbonization of industrial sites across sustainable chemistry, as well as biorefining and energy storage”, Eni said.

Eni expects to complete the new Versalis plan by 2029.

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