We hear from IPP Zelestra about its decision not to proceed in Italy’s MACSE auction and the auction’s wider implications on demand for private tolls.

Another busy week of large-scale BESS project news across Europe, led by CountourGlobal putting a 202MW/505MWh BESS into commercial operation in Bulgaria.

The managing director of Bluestar Energy Capital’s European BESS platform Noveria Energy gave a Q&A to Energy-Storage.news ahead of the Energy Storage Summit 2026 in London next month.

It’s our first week back to normal service so here’s a roundup of the past few weeks of BESS action in Europe, with projects moving forward in Romania, Denmark, UK, France, Spain, Albania, Germany and Austria.

The Battery Asset Management Summit Europe earlier this month brought together operators, optimisers, software and hardware suppliers and more to discuss the big topics in BESS risk management, operation, commercialisation and optimisation. Read on for a summary of the key talking points.

It’s been a busy few weeks in the run-up to Christmas in Europe’s BESS project space, with M&A, final investment decisions (FID) and supplier deals in Germany, Belgium, Portugal, Italy, Finland, Romania and the UK totally around 800MW of capacity.

The recent introduction of 15-minute settlement periods across European power markets could result in significantly higher profits for battery storage asset operators.

In this Energy-Storage.news roundup, Energy Vault enters the Swiss energy storage market, ZincFive raises Series F financing, and Convergent Energy and Power secures a multimillion-dollar facility provided by NY Green Bank.

European energy independence is achievable if long-duration energy storage is factored into the mix, writes Oonagh O’Grady of Hydrostor.

We caught up with developer and IPP Greenvolt Power’s head of storage Antonio Montoto Rojo about the recent MACSE auction in Italy, where it won a contract for a 75MW BESS.