Automotive group Mercedes-Benz has inaugurated what it claimed is the first integrated hydrometallurgical facility in Europe for battery recycling in Baden-Württemberg, Germany.

A roundup of news from Europe, with Alfen and Sermatec deploying BESS projects in Sweden and Bulgaria and new firm terralyr raising €77 million for project development and operation, starting in Germany.

The German Federal Network Agency (Bundesnetzagentur) has awarded 587MW of solar-plus-storage in its latest Innovation Tender.

Cloud-based battery analytics provider ACCURE is monitoring a fleet of large-scale battery storage systems in Germany for Iqony, a subsidiary of utility Steag.

Fluence Energy GmbH, a subsidiary of battery storage system integrator Fluence, will provide solutions for Germany’s largest solar-plus-storage project.

The German government has opened a public consultation on new frameworks to procure energy resources, including long-duration energy storage (LDES).

Investor Return has acquired an energy storage development platform in Germany, Swedish optimiser Flower has bought another large-scale BESS project, while Romania’s CIS Group has revealed a flurry of solar and storage projects.

Sweden-headquartered lithium-ion technology Northvolt has concluded its strategic review, revealing it is divesting or ceasing non-core activities, sharpening its focus to battery cell manufacturing and reducing its workforce.

Germany-headquartered utility and IPP RWE will build a 7.5MW/11MWh battery energy storage system (BESS) in the Netherlands with grid-forming inertia capabilities.

BESS developer-operator Aquila Clean Energy has started building a 50MW/100MWh project in Germany, its first major one in the country.