SSE Renewables, Matrix Renewables, Drax and Voltaria have all progressed large-scale BESS projects in the UK, all-in-all totalling 1.8GWh of new capacity.
BESS platform NGEN has started building an 85M/170MWh BESS in Austria, while Foresight Group and the EBRD have invested in development platforms in Germany and Lithuania.
Terna, the transmission system operator (TSO) of Italy, has approved the grid connection for a 500MW/3GWh BESS project. Meanwhile several smaller projects have progressed across the rest of Europe.
We caught up with the CEO of owner-operator BW ESS, Erik Strømsø, about the firm’s next deployment plans, tolling trends, procurement and LDES, with its 11.5-hour Bannaby BESS in Australia further proof of lithium-ion’s long-duration potential.
How to enable bankability for large-scale BESS projects was the main topic of the opening panel discussion at the Energy Storage Summit 2026 which kicked off today (24 February).
2025 saw genuinely large-scale BESS projects start construction in Germany, strengthening confidence among stakeholders. But significant challenges remain around grid connection, connection agreements and access to revenue streams, an operator said.
In a surprising move, the North American development arm of Engie has asked the California Energy Commission (CEC) to pause the review of its Compass Energy Storage project destined for Orange County, in order to assess alternative development sites.
Last month was the first time since June that both pre-application submissions and full planning consent submissions for grid-scale UK BESS surpassed 1GWh – just before NESO announced the results of its grid connection queue reshuffle.
A trio of Germany grid-scale BESS news items, with Next Kraftwerke and ju:niz Energy agreeing a seven year toll, Alpiq announcing a 370MW pipeline, and WBS Power selling the country’s largest solar-plus-storage project and planning a data centre on the same site.
