Battery storage investment model still a work in progress

By Cameron Murray
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Experts from the industry discuss the investment landscape for energy storage. Image: Solar Media Events via Twitter.

Although huge amounts of capital are being deployed into storage, some investors speaking at the Energy Storage Summit 2022 made it clear that the investment model is still set to evolve hugely. 

Jan Libicek, Investment Director at Bluefield Partners and Thomas McNicholas, Director at Greencoat Capital, both said they expected higher returns from storage than for other renewables, at a panel discussion on the second day of the sold-out event, hosted in London by our publisher Solar Media. 

Conrad Purcell, Partner at Haynes Boone said that the investment landscape for storage has become highly diversified and that he is seeing some really novel investment structures. 

“People are also looking for much higher levels of control over their investments, even with those developers who have long track records,” he added. “The market fundamentals are very different from renewable projects historically and there is also a much greater range of opportunities for sourcing capital, with so many pots of money available.” 

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Karl Byrne, Vice President, BlackRock, similarly said: “There is no one size fits all approach to financing. We might build three robust models for a project and come up with different return forecasts. We consider things like: how wrapped is the engineering, procurement, and construction (EPC)? What is the construction risk?” 

Echoing what Purcell said about control, Byrne added: “We look at battery storage on an equity-only basis. We’d need more contracted revenues to bring in debt.” 

Gauri Kasbekar-Shah, MD, Head of Energy, Edmond de Rothschild, expanded on the additional value that large investment firms can bring: “We see ourselves as providing the flexibility in financial structure to allow the developer to capture all possible revenues with the storage asset. We are coming from a much better understanding of the asset class.” 

Battery storage at the frontier of investability

Jan Libicek, Investment Director, Bluefield Partners LLP, echoed what was said in other panel sessions at the Summit about the move from colocation to standalone storage assets: ”Two years ago it was a clear win for colocation but the focus is clearly now shifting to standalone storage, although colocation means you can save on the capex side.” 

In response to an audience question about aggregating multiple storage assets into one asset, he said it would be ‘fiddly’ for the investor but recent examples of this in solar meant it was feasible and, if done right, could actually be more attractive than a single asset of the same capacity. 

Another audience question related to earlier-stage storage technologies, to which Libicek said: “We’re looking at a few hydrogen projects in Europe but that’s a year or a few years away from being investable. Battery storage is for now the limit to where we’ll go.” 

Whie Purcell added: “What we find is that, where there is no track record which you can point to, there is an alternative approach. It works in other areas and involves having a large technology provider which can acquire or develop a new technology and can warrant that product to the buyer. That is bankable.”

14 October 2025
InterContinental, Santiago, Chile
We are excited to bring the industry together for the fourth edition of the Energy Storage Summit Latin America on 14-15 October in Santiago, Chile. The Summit has become a meeting place for IPPs and developers, investors, financiers and banks, utilities, consultancies, software providers, and manufacturers who are setting high standards in the Latin American energy storage sector.
14 October 2025
10am PDT / 6pm BST
Join Wärtsilä battery analytics experts Andrea Meister and Steve Merrick for a critical session that cuts through the confusion surrounding state of charge (SoC), state of health (SoH), cell imbalance, and round-trip efficiency (RTE)—parameters that directly impact real-time operations and revenue. As grid demands intensify and performance expectations rise, the margin for error is shrinking. Andrea and Steve will unpack how these metrics are measured, how errors and degradation develop, and how to proactively avoid them. You’ll gain practical insights into how these factors influence real-time usable energy and system performance.
14 October 2025
Brussels, Belgium
can be added on the Energy Storage News event page. The Energy Storage Global Conference 2025 takes place form 14-16 October and will bring together representatives from across Europe to discuss the evolving landscape of energy storage. The programme will focus on policy, market dynamics and regional developments, while also addressing key issues such as legislative challenges, safety guidelines and decarbonisation strategies. Participants will gain insights into financing and market opportunities, as well as the unique advancements and integration efforts taking place within the Benelux region. For more information on the conference, please visit: https://www.accelevents.com/e/ENERGY-STORAGE-GLOBAL-CONFERENCE-2025?aff=EnergyStorageNews
14 October 2025
The Marble Arch Hotel, London, UK
As developers and investors expand into new markets and more projects approach commissioning, this Summit provides the platform to address the key challenges of battery asset management head-on. In 2025, the programme will centre around three essential themes: Revenue & Trading, the Lifecycle of the Battery, and Optimisation Tools for Success. With deep dives into core markets—including the Nordics, Iberia, Italy, Germany, the UK & Ireland, and the Benelux region—you’ll gain the insight needed to position yourself as a leader in battery asset performance and strategy.
21 October 2025
360 Madison Avenue, New York
Returning for its 12th edition, Solar and Storage Finance USA Summit remains the annual event where decision-makers at the forefront of solar and storage projects across the United States and capital converge. Featuring the most active solar and storage transactors, join us for a packed two-days of deal-making, learning and networking.
22 October 2025
2pm BST / 3pm CEST
Join our expert panel for this solutions-focused webinar where we’ll reveal how leading asset managers are transforming operations through a practical data-exchange architecture that standardises telemetry and metadata, embeds auditability into workflows, and ensures all stakeholders access the same accurate information through a Partner API. With analytics-ready data in place, you’ll discover how to apply advanced battery analytics that reduce downtime by up to 15% and increase the return on every asset under management.

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