The system integration arm of SMA Solar and utility RheinEnergie have partnered to deploy BESS projects in Germany, with construction about to launch on the first.
The two companies will co-develop battery energy storage system (BESS) projects to be paired with renewable energy plants like wind and solar as well as standalone BESS projects, they said last week (25 March).
SMA Solar Technology subsidiary Altenso will head up development, construction and maintenance while RheinEnergie will take on operational management and trading of the systems once online.
They did not reveal any deployment target but said the first, 24.5MW/64MWh BESS is set to launch construction in the next few months. It will be in Northeim, Lower Saxony, and should be completed in early 2026.
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SMA Solar has recently seen falling sales and profitability in its core business of inverters for the European solar market, as covered by our colleagues at PV Tech. Making a bigger move into battery storage system integration could help to offset this.
“We operate as a holistic solution provider specialising in the integration of complex energy systems and already have a successful track record on system solutions for BESS projects around the world with a total output of more than 1.5GW,” said Burkhard Söhngen, managing director at Altenso. “By teaming up with RheinEnergie, we now have an experienced partner who we can work with to deliver a key contribution to Germany’s renewable energy supply.”
Germany is seen as one of, if not the, most attractive energy storage markets in Europe, with an ambitious 200GW-plus 2030 solar target and a very deep wholesale energy market. However, its BESS development space appears highly saturated, with one owner-operator ‘green flexibility’ saying the market would now start ‘cooling’ off (Premium access) while sources at the Energy Storage Summit EU 2025 in February said the grid connection backlog for BESS is even more stark than in the UK.
Across grid-scale, commercial & industrial (C&I) and residential segments, the country is already the largest market in Europe and looks set to solidify that position by 2030 according to recent data from research firm LCP Delta and trade body EASE.
Last week saw oil and gas major TotalEnergies reveal it is building 321MW of BESS projects in Germany.
