The intentions of battery storage developers and operators from the UK in Poland and CEE are ‘not very concrete’ with most just ‘getting a feel’ for what’s out there, sources said.
Energy storage system (ESS) executives from Northvolt and Fluence discussed the battery and battery storage manufacturing ecosystem in Europe in separate interviews whilst at the Energy Storage Summit Central Eastern Europe (CEE) recently.
The Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) energy storage market is in its infancy but has the potential to leapfrog more developed markets with Poland in a leading position, said executives from Fluence.
The energy storage market in Poland is “not an undersupplied one”, has higher financing costs and there is a two-year window in which you need to get in to capitalise on the opportunities, said renewable energy developer and IPP Aquila Clean Energy.
Northvolt intends to use its vertical European supply chain to differentiate itself in a ‘fiercely competitive’ energy storage market, executives said.
Executives from Sweden-based developer OX2 discussed its diversification from wind and solar into storage with Energy-Storage.news, with Poland a big part of that move.
UK-based investor Gore Street Capital has identified Poland, Hungary and Austria as markets of interest in the CEE region, investment principal John-Michael Cheshire told Energy-Storage.news in a Q&A.
Developer NGEN is deploying the largest battery storage projects in Slovenia, Austria and Croatia, and wants to take its model beyond CEE too, CEO and co-founder Roman Bernard said.
The Poland arm of UK-based developer Harmony Energy is looking to bid in around 500MW of battery storage projects into the upcoming capacity market auction, executive director Michał Maćkowiak said.
