Eni Storage Systems has broken ground on a gigafactory in Italy set to build LFP cells for energy storage applications, while Chinese firm Hithium has won an €80 million grant from the Spanish government for a battery and BESS plant there.

Power firm Engie has entered into a long-term flexibility purchase agreement with developer Ignis for 625MWh of BESS capacity in Spain.

A lot of work and thought still needs to go into maximising the potential for co-location of solar and BESS technology, panellists at the Clean Power 2030 Summit said yesterday (30 June).

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.

There is a big gap in the industry’s understanding of the Spanish energy storage market, but that gap also creates opportunities for smart operators, writes Ignacio López Martín, chair of developer Capflex Energía.

Four large-scale BESS projects totalling a combined 2.2GWh of capacity in major EU markets can now proceed with construction following successful financing by owners OX2, R.Power, BRUC and Aukera.

The European Commission has approved a €9 billion (US$10.5 billion) scheme to shore up its energy capacity, which will be open to new and existing projects including energy storage.

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.

CATL will supply the BESS units for Grenergy’s two large-scale energy storage projects in Spain, both of which have decade-long tolls.

We catch up with Ingmar Wilhelm, co-founder and CEO of developer and IPP Galileo, after the firm commissioned its first own-operate renewable energy project.