Spain's Norvento targets Latin America’s utility-scale energy storage market with new 9 MVA platform

Spanish renewable energy company Norvento Enerxía is expanding its Latin American strategy to target utility-scale energy storage, as the region’s electricity systems require greater flexibility to accommodate growing volumes of solar and wind generation.

The Lugo-based group plans to market its new nXL power conversion platform to battery manufacturers, energy storage integrators and renewable project developers operating across Latin America.

Norvento has identified Brazil, Chile, Argentina, Mexico and Guatemala as its priority markets. Peru and Colombia are also being monitored, although they currently occupy a secondary position in the company’s commercial plans.

The expansion represents a change in scale for a business that already has experience in the region. Until now, most of Norvento’s Latin American activity has been concentrated on industrial self-consumption, microgrids and smaller battery systems.

The company has worked with local partners in Argentina, supplying equipment for commercial and industrial energy projects. It has also participated in developments in the Caribbean, particularly in the Dominican Republic, where electricity reliability, isolated systems and expanding solar capacity are creating demand for technologies that can combine generation and storage.

Many of those installations use Norvento’s nGM converter range, with power ratings between 50 kW and 200 kW. The equipment is designed for microgrids that may bring together photovoltaic panels, small wind turbines, conventional generators and batteries, including systems operating without a permanent connection to the public grid.

Norvento now wants to apply that experience to projects measured in megawatts rather than kilowatts.

The company used its participation in Intersolar South America in Brazil to introduce the nXL family to the regional market. The platform was developed for large battery storage facilities and utility-scale photovoltaic plants.

Its storage version can reach up to 9 MVA per unit in a 20-foot format. The converter is positioned between the batteries and the electricity grid, managing the bidirectional conversion of power and controlling how the installation responds to operating conditions.

According to Norvento, the platform can achieve efficiency close to 99%, reducing electrical losses during charging and discharging. Its architecture also supports functions that are becoming increasingly important as conventional power stations are replaced or supplemented by variable renewable generation.

These capabilities include grid-forming and grid-following operation, voltage and frequency regulation, black start, active filtering and STATCOM functionality. Together, they allow storage facilities to do more than move electricity from one time of day to another: they can also support grid stability and power quality.

The equipment was additionally designed for demanding environmental conditions. Its power electronics are housed inside a sealed IP65 enclosure, while liquid cooling is combined with an HVAC system.

Norvento says this configuration allows the converter to maintain its rated power at temperatures of up to 40°C and limits maintenance associated with air filters. Those characteristics could be relevant in areas exposed to dust, humidity or high temperatures, including mining and renewable-energy regions in northern Chile, Argentina and Brazil.

The company’s commercial model will differ from that of businesses delivering complete battery energy storage systems, commonly known as BESS.

Norvento does not intend to become the principal integrator for every utility-scale project. Instead, it plans to supply power electronics to companies responsible for combining batteries, converters, transformers, controls, safety systems and grid connections into a complete installation.

This division of roles reflects the cost and risk structure of the storage industry. Batteries can represent approximately 70% to 75% of the total cost of a large system, while power electronics account for a smaller proportion. Responsibility for the complete project warranty therefore usually remains with the battery supplier or system integrator.

For Norvento, specialising in conversion equipment reduces exposure to the financing and performance risks associated with the full battery package. It also allows the Spanish company to participate in projects using cells and battery containers supplied by different manufacturers.

However, the strategy will require commercial agreements with established integrators and developers. Large energy projects generally demand compliance with local grid codes, long-term technical support and warranties that are acceptable to lenders and project owners.

Chile is currently the region’s clearest reference market. Rapid solar and wind deployment, combined with transmission bottlenecks, has created periods in which renewable electricity must be curtailed because it cannot be transported or consumed when it is generated.

Battery projects can store part of that surplus during hours of high production and return it to the grid when demand and prices increase. Storage can also provide frequency control, voltage support and other services needed to operate a system with a larger share of variable generation.

Norvento expects similar requirements to emerge across other Latin American markets, although each country is advancing at a different pace.

Brazil offers scale through its large electricity system and expanding renewable fleet. Argentina, Mexico and Guatemala are beginning to incorporate storage into procurement mechanisms and energy planning, partly to prevent grid constraints from intensifying as new solar and wind capacity enters operation.

The company’s assessment is that adding generation alone will not resolve the region’s electricity challenges. New renewable capacity must be accompanied by transmission infrastructure, flexible demand, digital control systems and storage capable of delivering electricity when the system requires it.

Norvento’s Latin American expansion is also connected to its industrial strategy in Spain. Founded in 1981 as an electrical engineering company, the group subsequently entered renewable project development and added a technology manufacturing division in 2009.

The company is developing the Norvento Enerxía Factory Zero, or neFO, in Lugo. The facility will cover more than 20,000 square metres and manufacture equipment for renewable generation, energy management and storage, including the nXL and nGM converter ranges, battery systems and wind turbines.

The project has received support from the European Union Innovation Fund, linking Norvento’s planned international growth to an effort to expand European manufacturing capacity for energy-transition technologies.

Latin America offers a potentially large market, but expansion will depend on more than technical specifications. Storage projects require regulatory frameworks that compensate the services provided by batteries, access to grid connections, predictable permitting and financing structures capable of supporting capital-intensive assets.

Norvento’s strategy therefore places the company in a specific section of the value chain: it will provide one of the components responsible for connecting batteries to the grid while relying on regional and international partners to assemble and guarantee complete systems.

If storage deployment accelerates as expected, that position could give the Spanish group access to a new generation of Latin American infrastructure projects without abandoning the industrial and technological specialisation developed in Galicia.

The immediate objective is to convert existing relationships in smaller energy systems into contracts for utility-scale facilities. The longer-term opportunity lies in becoming a power-electronics supplier for a region where renewable generation is expanding faster than the infrastructure required to manage it.