Masdar and Endesa Begin Building €25.2 Million Battery Storage Portfolio in Spain

The projects are small against Masdar's global targets, but they are the first concrete step in a storage plan the partners set out when they joined forces. In July 2024 Masdar agreed to pay €817 million for a 49.99% stake in a portfolio of 48 operating Endesa solar plants. The deal gave the assets an enterprise value of €1.7 billion, and at the time the two companies said they planned to add 0.5 GW of battery storage to the portfolio. The three projects now under way account for about 60 MW of that.

The largest of the three, Ardila, sits at the 44 MWp solar plants in Fregenal de la Sierra in the province of Badajoz, Extremadura. It will provide 36.10 MW of capacity and 72.20 MWh of storage across 12 battery containers. Masdar said that is enough to hold the equivalent of the daily electricity use of about 8,100 Spanish households. The other two, La Vega I and La Vega II, are at two solar plants in Teba, in the province of Málaga in Andalusia. Each will provide 12.03 MW and 24.07 MWh from four containers, and together they can store the equivalent of the daily use of about 5,400 households.

Storing part of each plant's output will let more renewable power feed into the grid and make the system more flexible, the companies said. All three sites will use lithium iron phosphate batteries paired with grid-forming inverters. According to Masdar, these provide synthetic inertia by mimicking the behaviour of a conventional thermal or hydro generator, and react almost instantly to sudden changes on the grid. The partners will carry out research and technical validation, including on-site tests and studies of grid-forming operation, with the research centre CIRCE and the Institute for Research in Technology at Comillas Pontifical University.

Dr. Ibraheem Almansouri, Masdar's acting chief operating officer, said Spain was one of Europe's fastest-growing major economies and that its growth required secure and resilient power. "They demonstrate how strategic partnerships can accelerate the deployment of advanced energy technologies, strengthen grid resilience and support sustainable economic growth," he said of the projects. He added that Masdar wanted to keep investing in Spain and expand its Iberian portfolio.

The companies said construction will create 50 jobs, and they have committed to using components and services of European origin, including inverters, auxiliary systems, communications and integration. At Ardila, the partners will also work with the Fregenal de la Sierra town council to pick local improvement projects, with part of the budget set aside for training.

Masdar has 4.1 GW of operating capacity across the Iberian Peninsula and about 1 GW more under development, the company said. It is aiming for 100 GW of renewable capacity worldwide by 2030. The partners have not said when the rest of the planned 0.5 GW of storage on the Endesa portfolio will follow.