In a big week for the grid-scale energy storage market in Italy, regulators have approved new grid storage-specific auction rules and a chunk of Aura Power’s 500MW-plus pipeline of BESS projects.

Eni Plenitude, part of the large oil and gas major Eni, has put into operation a 15MW/9MWh battery storage unit in Italy.

System integrator Energy SpA and its vertically integrated peer Pylon Technologies have formed a joint venture (JV) to set up a gigafactory in Italy producing batteries for energy storage.

Italy is seeing “too many solar developers moving into storage” and issues around the spike in BESS capex costs shortly after 2022’s capacity market auction, sources told Energy-Storage.news.

Renewable energy developer Ameresco and EPC contractor Sunel Group will together bid on 1.5GWp of solar and energy storage projects across Europe.

Enel Green Power will start building 1.6GW of battery storage projects in Italy this quarter, with the country’s utility-scale market expected to soar in the next three years.

UK battery storage developer Field Energy has announced plans to expand into Italy, a market where the utility-scale sector is set to grow substantially from a negligible base today.

Europe reached 4.5GW of battery storage capacity last year and could hit 95GW by 2050, according to figures from LCP Delta and Aurora Energy Research respectively.

Enel X and Magaldi Group have begun construction on 13MWh thermal energy storage plant based on patented technology.

The broader portfolio and management team are critical to securing investment for individual energy storage projects, said senior figures at asset managers Blackrock and Impax.