What is the future for the grid-scale energy storage market in Italy, now that the dust has settled from the country’s long-awaited MACSE auction for BESS?
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.
European IPP R.Power’s head of BESS and CCO sat down with Energy-Storage.news at the Energy Storage Summit 2026 last month for a video interview to discuss the firm’s storage activity and approach to procuring technology.
Allianz GI, Luxcara and Return have acquired BESS projects and portfolios in Germany, Finland and Spain; Low Carbon, OX2, Cero Generation and Revera have taken FIDs on projects in Poland, Finland and the UK; and NHOA Energy has received a 600MWh order in Italy. All in all, the projects total at least 3.7GWh of capacity.
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).
