We hear from Nikhil Koppaka, senior commercial manager for BESS owner-operator BW ESS on the big opportunities and challenges in Germany’s grid-scale energy storage market.
BW ESS’ executive director Roberto Jimenez discusses the company’s recently-announced first Germany project, in Klostermansfeld, Saxony-Anhalt, which could be one of Europe’s largest when completed in 2028.
Three massive BESS projects have been launched in Europe: BW ESS has broken ground on a 1GW/5.7GWh system in Germany, while Greenvolt and Giga Storage have enlisted suppliers (BYD and Tesla) for 2.4GWh and 2.8GWh projects in Poland and Belgium.
The situation and uncertainty around grid connections and grid fees in Germany is evolving, possibly enabling market participants to look beyond the August 2029 grid fee exemption cut-off date – although uncertainty is still very high.
Energy storage owner-operator BW ESS has submitted a 700MW battery energy storage system (BESS) to Australia’s Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation (EPBC) Act for environmental assessment.
There’s been progress on several large-scale BESS projects in the UK, with Matrix Renewables securing financing for its Eccles project and BW ESS enlisting EDF to optimise its Hams Hall one; plus smaller announcements.
Executives from BW ESS, R.Power and Econergy, IPPs building large-scale BESS across Europe and Australia, recently sat down for video interviews at the Energy Storage Summit 2026 in London.
