A home battery is already a fact in countless households, but Liège Natie Cold Store recently launched the first Tesla Megapack in the port of Antwerp. Together with their windmill and a lot of solar panels, Stefaan Verhelst’s company becomes a lot more independent from the grid. “We will thus become the first CO2-neutral logistics company in the port of Antwerp, in an economically sustainable way.”
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Christoph Meeussen
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Elon Musk is a little bit more present in the port of Antwerp. Electricity company Engie just installed a so-called Tesla Mega Pack of 1,250 kilowatt-hours, which is about the same as 3,125 average bicycle batteries.
Posing in front of the Tesla battery: CEO Engie Benelux Thierry Saegeman, Minister of Environment Zuhal Demir (N-VA), standing in front of the new Tesla battery, and Antoine Geerinckx (CO2logic). — © Joris Herregods
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Luik Natie has a site on the left bank in the port of Antwerp with large refrigerated and frozen storage facilities. Strawberries, potatoes, bananas and mangoes are stored there. In recent years, the company has already installed a windmill (in 2015) and in the meantime also 6,000 square meters of solar panels. An oversized battery has now been added.
surpluses
Everything is connected to one energy management system. The battery stores surplus solar and wind energy that can be used at times with higher consumption. The company also has extra security in the event of power failures. By using more locally and sustainably generated electricity, CO2 emissions also decrease by 575 tons, according to Engie CEO Thierry Saegeman at Luik Natie.
–© Joris Herregods
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“We used to be at 70% self-consumption and 30% from the grid, now we’re going to 80 to 85%,” says Stefaan Verhelst, CEO of Luik Natie. “With the rising energy prices, this may also encourage others to opt for such a battery. Our customers are also increasingly asking us for CO2-neutral services, which we can offer in this way.”
900.000 euro
The battery, which will remain the property of Engie for another ten years, will cost approximately 900,000 euros, although Flanders provided a subsidy of 167,000 euros. “After nice words about the climate, actions must also follow, like here today,” says Demir. “The switch to renewable energy can only be made structurally if we also have sufficiently strong batteries. This is the way to unburden the network and to get a lower bill in the bus yourself.”
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