Eni Storage Systems has broken ground on a gigafactory in Italy set to build LFP cells for energy storage applications, while Chinese firm Hithium has won an €81 million (US$92 million) grant from the Spanish government for a battery and BESS plant.
The double-header of upstream news comes after a tough few years for Europe’s battery manufacturing sector. Some of its biggest hopes for independent homegrown battery ventures have failed (Northvolt, Freyr and Morrow) while automotive OEMs have begun scaling back ambitions amidst fierce competition from China.
However, some homegrown projects are still progressing and Chinese and Korean firms are setting up local manufacturing too. For the Chinese firms, part of this is mitigating against the future risk of increasing restrictions on Chinese tech into Europe’s clean energy market. The EU funding ban on Chinese inverters in solar and BESS was a big talking point at Intersolar last month.
Eni’s storage arm starts building LFP cell and BESS plant in Italy
The energy storage arm of Italy-headquartered oil and gas major Eni has started construction on its lithium iron phosphate (LFP) battery factory in Brindisi, Italy. The cells will be primarily used for battery energy storage system (BESS) applications.
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The groundbreaking ceremony was attended by Italy’s Minister of Enterprises and Made in Italy, Adolfo Urso, at the site which used to be used for now-decommissioned industrial activities including polymer storage.
It follows an initial engineering phase and economic, financial and permitting assessments, kicked off in September 2025.
The project pairs an LFP cell manufacturing and BESS assembly plant. The latter will also assemble BESS using modules provided by its Brindisi project joint venture (JV) partner Seri Industrial, from a manufacturing facility in Teverola.
A second phase will see the Brindisi site also host LFP cathode active material production and battery recycling facilities.
In total, the project envisages a capacity of 16GWh per year by 2030, half at Brindisi and half at the Teverola plant, though Eni didn’t specify how much of this was LFP batteries, modules or BESS.
“This investment will establish an innovative local value chain capable of generating employment and strengthening strategic autonomy from non-EU markets, while reducing emissions without compromising competitiveness. Our industrial transformation model, which combines greater environmental sustainability, economic competitiveness and energy security, is now a tangible reality”, said Giuseppe Ricci, Eni’s COO for industrial transformation.
Eni also this week announced an agreement to acquire a 25% stake in a Chile lithium project being undertaken by EnergyX’s, amounting to a total phased investment of US$225 million for the Italian firm.
Italy’s downstream grid-scale energy storage market is set to soar in the coming years off the back of the MACSE auction, see all our coverage of the country here.
Hithium gets grant for 20% of Spain gigafactory investment costs
China-based BESS lithium-ion OEM Hithium has won an €81 million grant for its battery and BESS plant in Navarre, Spain.
The results of the RENOVAL 2 scheme were announced by The Institute for Diversification and Energy Saving (IDAE), part of the the Spanish Ministry of Ecological Transition (MITECO), at the end of June.
Hithium’s award is part of the €162 million package for clean energy manufacturing which went to 40 projects seeking to build batteries, solar and other clean energy tech.
While there are ten other battery projects among the winners, Hithium’s is by far the largest, accounting for half of the total pot. It is being developed under subsidiary Hithium Spain Innovation S.A.U, and the award noted that the total investment will be €405 million.
Hithium and the regional government of Navarre signed an agreement in April this year to develop, build and operate the BESS cell and assembly gigafactory. The agreement was signed in the presence of Spain’s prime minister (pictured below).
Hithium hasn’t revealed details about the factory’s size, capacity or firm timelines, but with €400 million investment it will be substantial.
See our sister site PV Tech‘s coverage for more on the solar projects and see the full list of projects
