UK-based BESS and EV charging firm Zenobē has entered the German market with the acquisition of Bavaria-headquartered BESS developer SDP Energie.
Announced yesterday (27 July), the deal sees Zenobē take on SDP and a pipeline of six transmission-level battery energy storage system (BESS) projects in Germany totalling 1.75GW of capacity. The firm has a broader development pipeline totalling 4GW.
The partnership combines SDP’s local knowledge of Germany’s regulatory environment and grid infrastructure with Zenobē’s expertise in bringing online and operating transmission-level, large scale BESS in the UK.
Zenobē has also been one of the pioneers in deploying BESS to provide grid-forming services like inertia in the UK with its Kilmarnock South and Blackhillock projects in Scotland. That market is starting to open up in Germany now too.
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Zenobē also financed the UK’s first 4-hour BESS project recently, the 200MW/800Mh Coalburn project. Germany is also heading in the direction of 4-hour projects, with its revenue stack already geared more towards wholesale energy trading than in the UK.
Johannes Steck, co-Founder, SDP Energie (stylised as ‘sdp energie’) commented: “Developing transmission-connected battery storage projects in Germany requires deep local expertise, persistence and trusted relationships.”
James Basden, Co-Founder and Director at Zenobē, added: “We intend to buy more transmission scale projects and to work with leading offtake providers looking for a proven partner for flexibility services.”
The news comes as large-scale BESS financing, transaction, supply deal and construction activity soars after German regulators confirmed the 4 August 2029 for projects to get online and avoid charge-discharge grid fees.
According to our analysis and reporting, at the time of writing last week the progression of some 15GWh of large-scale BESS capacity had been announced since the decision at the end of May.
And just today, power firm RWE announced it was starting construction on a 236MW/470MWh BESS at its Hambach open-cast mine, set for commissioning in 2027.
We’ve interviewed numerous Zenobē executives in the past. We chatted to Basden last year about the company’s opposition to the UK’s long-duration energy storage scheme, while CCO Semih Oztreves has regularly discussed the big picture topics in the industry.
