We chat to Stephan Lehrke, head of Germany at Second Foundation, a Czech Republic-headquartered energy asset trading firm which is becoming an owner-operator of BESS.

Activity in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) continues to accelerate, with two separate c.600MWh projects completed in Bulgaria by Solarpro & CATL and Sunotec and Sungrow, plus around 800MWh of capacity progressed across Romania, Estonia, Lithuania, and Finland.

Wärtsilä spinning out its energy storage activities and divesting a 50% stake this week reflects difficulties in making the business profitable and synergistic within the wider group activities, analysts said.

Octopus Energy Generation has partnered with ZE Energy to invest in and build one of Italy’s biggest BESS projects, while Eco Stor has secured financing for one of Germany’s, which it is already building. Optimiser Entrix has also won two large contracts in Germany and the Netherlands.

Around 4.9GW/14.6GWh of large-scale BESS came online in May, with a much more balanced regional breakdown than usual.

What is driving and shaping European BESS project financing and M&A this year?

The Czech Republic’s fourth pumped hydro energy storage plant is to be built within an existing hydropower complex, converting convention run-of-river into reversible units, creating 750MWh of energy storage capacity.

IPP Greenvolt has put a 99.8MW/288.6MWh BESS into commercial operation in Hungary, the largest in the country, while pipelines and projects have been progressed in Italy, France, Netherlands, Belgium and Spain.

There is a big gap in the industry’s understanding of the Spanish energy storage market, but that gap also creates opportunities for smart operators, writes Ignacio López Martín, chair of developer Capflex Energía.

A trio of notable Germany announcements: Aquila Clean Energy EMEA has financed a merchant project, Chint Solar has sold a portfolio to Second Foundation while Twaice will provide analytics on behalf of BayWa r.e..