Long-duration energy storage (LDES) technologies are becoming increasingly viable options to add flexibility to the European electricity network, according to a new report.

Battery storage is effectively a hardware-backed multi-strategy trading platform, writes Partha Sharma, president of BBNR Capital Management.

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.

There has been another twist in the long-running saga of Wärtsilä’s energy storage business and how the company aims to run it going forward.

Energy-Storage.news presents this sponsored webinar with Clean Horizon, on how Germany’s grid connection agreements can affect the business case for battery storage projects.

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