TagEnergy has commissioned a 240MW/480MWh BESS in France, while Iberdrola has done the same with a 58MW/120MWh system in Spain, the two largest projects in each country.
Meanwhile Engie, ACL Energy and Chint Solar Europe have moved to construction on projects in Belgium, Italy and Germany.
TagEnergy puts France’s largest BESS into operation
Battery energy storage system (BESS) platform TagEnergy has put a 240MW/480MWh system into commercial operation in France (pictured above).
The Cernay-lès-Reims project is the largest in the country, is TagEnergy’s first there, and is co-owned with the Banque des Territoires. It replaces the 100MW/200MWh Chevire BESS as the country’s largest.
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Cernay-lès-Reims uses Tesla Megapacks while other project partners include TSO Réseau de Transport d’Électricité (RTE), SICAE EST, the Municipality of Cernay-lès-Reims and the Grand Reims metropolitan area.
Large-scale BESS activity in France has started to pick up in the past year, driven by big opportunities in ancillary services and grid balancing activities. Neoen, Engie (both France-headquartered) and Harmony Energy recently launched construction on projects totalling nearly 1GWh combined.
Iberdrola puts Spain’s largest BESS online
Meanwhile in Spain, power firm Iberdrola has inaugurated what it claimed is the largest BESS project there.
The 58MW/120MWh project is co-located with the Campo Arañuelo solar complex in Cáceres. However, it is actually two separate BESS projects of around 60MWh each, co-located with the Campo Arañuelo I and II solar plants.
It is the latest in a flurry of large-scale BESS activity in Spain, where the focus on BESS’ role in grid stability was sharpened by the Iberian blackout in April 2025. Just two days ago we reported on a massive 1.5GWh order for CATL from Grenergy for two projects in Spain, while big projects and portfolios have been progressed to construction this year by Engie, Return, FRV and Zelestra.
In January Iberdrola commissioned two similarly sized projects to its Cáceres ones. The four are part of a portfolio it launched construction on in January 2024. Those were part of 1.9GWh of energy storage projects awarded grant funding in the PERTE tender, used to kickstart Spain’s large-scale market.
Engie and NHOA proceed on 320MWh BESS in Belgium
Engie and its BESS supplier NHOA Energy have officially broken ground on a 320MWh BESS project in Belgium. The project is at Engie’s Drogenbos power station, near Brussels. It has a 15-year revenue contract under Belgium’s fifth Capacity Remuneration Mechanism (CRM) auction (equivalent to its CM)
Engie hired NHOA for the project in December 2025. It was formerly a subsidiary of the group, and the pair have also worked on a 400MWh project in Belgium. Engie has used Sungrow for its other Belgium project.
Belgium has been one of Continental Europe’s first-movers on storage thanks to the long-term revenues available under its CRM, but also a favourable regulatory regime, including with exemptions for charge-discharge grid fees. However, that exemption will be phased out for projects signing a grid connection agreement after 1 April, 2026, signalling a new era for the market.
Qualitas Energy finances two ACL BESS projects in Italy
Investment services firm Qualitas Energy will provide project financing for two BESS projects in Italy developed by ACL Energy, via its Qualitas Energy Credit Fund which is providing the minority shareholder equity contribution.
The two projects total 211MW and are 4-hour and 8-hour systems respectively. They are in the Lombardy and Apulia regions and have long-term revenue contracts via the capacity market (CM) and MACSE auctions, respectively.
The Apulia project is almost certainly the project which bid in 706MWh of capacity into MACSE (see our analysis of the auction).
The projects are owned by ACL Energy and an ‘industrial partner’ which holds a majority share. The partner could well be BW ESS, the global BESS owner-operator which has partnered with ACL on a 2.9GW Italy pipeline.
MACSE’s conclusion in September enabled the grid-scale BESS market in Italy to get off the ground, providing long-term revenues to winners and a reference point for everyone else. See all our recent coverage of Italy here, including Neoen launching construction on a 25MW/100MWh project.
Chint Solar Europe, Nordic Solar progress Germany projects
Meanwhile, progress has been made on two smaller projects in Germany, where our publisher Solar Media hosts the Energy Storage Summit at The Battery Show Europe in Stuttgart in under two weeks’ time (9-11 June: use our discount code ESN20 for 20% off ticket price).
Developer and IPP Chint Solar Europe (“Chint”), started construction on a 12MW/40MWh BESS in Weißenfels earlier this year which it expects to commission imminently. A second phase is planned for 2027 which will double its size. The firm has 40 projects in Germany planned for commissioning between now and 2030, delivered with in-house EPC services.
Nordic Solar, a Denmark-based developer/IPP, meanwhile has put an 11MW/22MWh project into operation in Tiste, Lower Saxony.
We’ve recently published comments from both Nordic Solar’s CEO Nikolaj Holtet Hoff and its head of energy storage Søren Juel Hansen (ESN Premium access).
