BESS investments in the French market are moving to longer durations with saturation expected to hit the secondary reserve market, currently the main way operational projects make their money.

German IPP Enertrag and Swiss utility Axpo have launched BESS projects in France, including what could be the country’s first 3-hour project.

There is an opportunity for locally designed and manufactured BESS solutions in Europe, with the possibility of future EU controls of Chinese imports, former head of BESS products at Northvolt said. 

We caught up with Peter Kavanagh, CEO of BESS developer Harmony Energy, after it was acquired by Switzerland-headquartered power group Alpiq. 

RWE has launched construction on a 236MW/470MWh BESS in Germany, while IPP Kallista has done the same on a 193MW/386MWh system in France, supplied by Envision Energy.

In this news roundup, Grenergy, MaxSolar and Saft, and Amarenco have made significant advancements on BESS projects in Spain, Germany, and France.

IPP Greenvolt has put a 99.8MW/288.6MWh BESS into commercial operation in Hungary, the largest in the country, while pipelines and projects have been progressed in Italy, France, Netherlands, Belgium and Spain.

TagEnergy has commissioned a 240MW/480MWh project in France while Iberdrola has done the same with a 58MW/120MWh system in Spain, the two largest projects in each country. Meanwhile Engie, ACL Energy and Chint Solar Europe have moved to construction on projects in Belgium, Italy and Germany.

How can energy storage capitalise on energy price volatility in European markets, and how do investors need to think about future opportunities and challenges? An expert panel at the Energy Storage Summit 2026 in London in February dived into the topic.

Multinational power firm Engie has acquired two large-scale BESS projects in Spain, paired with synchronous condensers and has launched construction on a BESS in France.