Neoen starts building 4-hour BESS in Italy<\/p>\n
Independent power producer (IPP) Neoen has started building its 25MW\/100MWh, 4-hour Prasian di Prato Battery project in Friuli-Venezia Giulia, Italy. <\/p>\n
The battery energy storage system (BESS) project has a capacity market (CM) contract<\/a>, one of the two key pillars of the energy storage business case in Italy, along with the MACSE<\/a> auction.<\/p>\n MACSE concluded in September last year<\/a>, finally paving the way for projects to proceed to financing and construction. <\/p>\n Both schemes provide long-term revenues to BESS, which will be key to integrating Italy\u2019s growing renewable generation. <\/p>\n It is Neoen\u2019s second energy storage asset in Italy after the Broni Battery (10MW\/40MWh) which is midway through construction by supplier NHOA Energy (and also has a CM contract<\/a>). The firm is also active in BESS globally; see all our coverage of it here<\/a>.<\/p>\n Nofar launches construction on 820MWh of Romania projects<\/p>\n IPP Nofar Energy<\/a> has signed a limited notice to proceed (LTNP) and term sheet with a BESS supplier to build two large-scale BESS projects in Romania. They total 160MW\/340MWh and 120MW\/520MWh, co-located with its Lepuresti and Ghimpati solar PV plants.<\/p>\n Nofar said the lump sum agreements total \u20ac80 million (US$93 million) and provide budget certainty and secure long-lead components, enabling the projects to come online within the next nine months. <\/p>\n Romania is one of the busiest markets for energy storage in Europe at the moment<\/a>, with high solar PV penetration, various subsidies available and a storage-friendly regulatory environment. See all project news here<\/a>. In Europe, Nofar has been especially active in Germany\u2019s BESS market<\/a>.<\/p>\n Repono enlists optimiser for 404MWh Romania project<\/p>\n BESS investor Repono has enlisted route-to-market (RTM) and optimisation partners for its 202MW\/404MWh BESS in Romania, which it acquired in late 2025<\/a>. <\/p>\n Commodities trader Gunvor Group will provide Repono with a cap-and-floor toll structure covering 100% of its capacity, while optimiser Enspired will trade and optimise the project\u2019s activity to maximise revenues. <\/p>\n Repono was launched by EU body EIT InnoEnergy (plus other stakeholders)\u00a0in mid-2024 with an ambitious 2030 deployment target of 100GWh<\/a>. It partnered with Chinese system integrator Hyperstrong\u00a0on a 1.4GWh supply deal<\/a> in mid-2025. <\/p>\n Return building 29MWh project in Germany <\/p>\n BESS owner-operator Return has started building a 15MW\/29MWh project in Brietlingen, Lower Saxony, Germany. It is scheduled to go into operation in November 2026. <\/p>\n Return was an early mover in the Dutch market via its platform SemperPower, which deployed the two largest operational BESS projects in the country<\/a>. It has since dropped the SemperPower name and is now active under its own, and is also\u00a0an investor in another platform, Lion Storage<\/a>.<\/p>\n Return started expanding into Germany in 2024<\/a> and last year acquired a portfolio of projects in Spain too<\/a>.<\/p>\n RWE building solar and 80MWh storage project in Germany<\/p>\n In related news, power firm RWE will start construction on a 16.5MWp, 80MWh BESS project at the Hambuch opencast mine in Rhein-Erft this summer. It will go into operation by the end of the year. The company is one of the most active in the German BESS market, currently building two of the largest projects in the country (of 700MWh<\/a> and 800MWh<\/a>).<\/p>\n Green Capital and Prime Capital form 1.2GWh Poland partnership<\/p>\n Investors Green Capital S.A. and Prime Capital AG have partnered to build 300MW of BESS projects in Poland via a joint venture entity. Construction on the first is set to start this quarter (Q2 2026), and marks Green Capital\u2019s move to becoming an IPP. <\/p>\n Under the terms of the deal, Prime Capital has acquired a 50% stake in the imminent project. The companies have agreed to together realise the second project, which is set to hit RTB by the end of this year.<\/p>\n Both projects have 17-year contracts in Poland\u2019s CM, also the bedrock of the business case there<\/a>. <\/p>\n Enka buys 150MWh RTB project in Denmark <\/p>\n Investor Enka Energy Transition has acquired a 50MW\/150MWh BESS project in Denmark from developer BattMan Energy. <\/p>\n The ready-to-build (RTB) project is in Grenaa and is also backed by White Summit Capital, while BattMan will support it through engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) for a targeted Q1 2028 operational date. BattMan is also a local development partner for IPP Dais Energy, the founder of which we spoke to about the drivers of the Danish market in late 2024<\/a>. <\/p>\n Activity in Denmark has picked up in the past year; see all news here<\/a>.<\/p>\n Montenegro\u2019s national utility EPCG signs 500MWh MOU with Japanese firm<\/p>\n Japan-based BESS technology firm PowerX has entered into a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with Montenegro national utility Elektroprivreda Crne Gore AD Nik\u0161i\u0107 (EPCG) for deployments in the country. <\/p>\n The MOU sets an indicative target of approximately 500MWh of BESS capacity in Montenegro over an initial three-year period to integrate the country\u2019s growing renewable generation. It is targeting 50% renewables by 2030 as part of its National Energy and Climate Plan (NECP).<\/p>\n The MOU comes after EPCG launched a 300MWh BESS procurement in September 2024<\/a>. The exact nature of the partnership between the companies is not clear, nor whether it relates directly to that tender.<\/p>\n PowerX said they will \u2018collaborate together to identify optimal BESS deployment plans to support grid reliability, peak shaving, and frequency regulation,\u2019 and the firm will also explore the possibility of setting up local assembly capabilities. PowerX said that it has been selected for 153 projects in Japan totalling 2.8GWh of BESS capacity. <\/p>\n Moldova\u2019s CET-NORD procuring BESS <\/p>\n In somewhat similar news, Moldova\u2019s national utility CET-NORD has launched a tender seeking a company for a 70MW BESS at its B\u0103l\u021bi thermal power plant. It is seeking a partner to finance, design, build, install and commission the BESS project. <\/p>\n The project was initially to be funded by US development agency USAID<\/a>, but that was shut down in mid-2025 by the Trump administration. CET-NORD has had to relaunch the project with alternative funding sources. You can see the relevant tender documents (in Romanian) here<\/a>.<\/p>\n