CNESA Admin

October 28, 2025

Projects

Wärtsilä to deliver ‘Australia’s largest DC-coupled hybrid battery system’ for the NEM

CNESA Admin

October 28, 2025

Projects

Source: Energy Storage News

Finnish marine and energy technology group Wärtsilä will deliver what it claims is “Australia’s largest DC-coupled hybrid battery energy storage system (BESS)” for the National Electricity Market (NEM).

The project will be Wärtsilä’s ninth BESS site in Australia, expanding the company’s local footprint to 1.5GW/5.5GWh of capacity. The battery storage system is expected to be operational in 2028. The order will be booked by Wärtsilä in Q4 2025.

The announcement builds on Wärtsilä’s previous DC-coupled project in Australia, the 64MW/128MWh Fulham Solar Battery Hybrid project for Octopus Australia. Announced in April 2025, the project represented one of the first large-scale DC-coupled hybrid battery systems in the NEM.

Wärtsilä has not disclosed what project or developer it will supply the battery storage system for. However, the largest announced DC-coupled hybrid battery storage system in the NEM at the time of writing is Lightsource bp’s 49MW/562MWh Goulburn River solar-plus-storage site, which recently started construction.

CENSA Upcoming Events:

1. Dec.4-5 | 2025 China Energy Storage CEO Summit | Xiamen, Fujian

2. Apr. 1-3, 2026 | The 14th Energy Storage International Conference & Expo

CNESA Admin

October 19, 2025

Projects

Naturgy launches Construction on First Portion of Ten-site, 160MW BESS Portfolio in Spain

CNESA Admin

October 19, 2025

Projects

Source: Energy Storage News

*One of Naturgy’s solar and BESS sites in Spain. Image: Naturgy.*

Utility and power firm Naturgy has started building its first BESS projects in Spain, at a ten-site portfolio in Almeria and the Canary Islands.

The company announced groundbreaking on the first four of a ten-site portfolio on 16 October, saying the whole portfolio will total 160MW of power and 342MWh of energy storage capacity, an average duration of 2.13 hours.

The projects will be combined with four solar PV systems. The first battery energy storage systems (BESS) are being added to the Tabernas I and II PV plants in the province of Almería, and the El Escobar and Piletas I in Las Palmas (Canary Islands).

Naturgy plans to have launched construction on all ten by 2026, nine of which are hybridised with PV with one standalone project in Vigo (Pontevedra). It didn’t reveal the size of the four initial projects, which will come online in 2026.

The lithium-ion BESS will reinforce the electricity market in Spain and help to integrate more intermittent renewable energy, and Naturgy is investing €80 million (US$94 million) in them.

The projects are recipients of funding under Spain’s energy storage capex support scheme funded by the EU’s Recovery and Resilience framework, which is funding up to 3.5GWh of projects.

Naturgy’s peer Galp similarly announced the start of construction on BESS projects in Spain (and Portugal) earlier this year, as did Iberdrola in August.

Spain aims to be 81% powered by renewables by 2030, according to the country’s National Energy and Climate Plans (NECP), and energy storage will be key to helping to maintain system reliability and dampen price volatility. The government forecasts that 22.5GW of BESS will be needed by that date.

Spain and Portugal suffered a near country-wide blackout in April this year, which commentators have suggested could have been better mitigated with more grid-supporting and grid-forming technologies, including energy storage.

Naturgy is based in Spain but its first major large-scale activity was in Australia, bringing online the 128MW Cunderdin hybrid solar PV and 55MW/220MWh BESS in Western Australia in early 2025.

CENSA Upcoming Events:

1. Dec.4-5 | 2025 China Energy Storage CEO Summit | Xiamen, Fujian

2. Apr. 1-3, 2026 | The 14th Energy Storage International Conference & Expo

CNESA Admin

October 14, 2025

Projects

Renalfa switches on 260 MWh battery storage system in Bulgaria

CNESA Admin

October 14, 2025

Projects

Source: pv magazine

The battery energy storage system is the first phase of a 315 MW/760 MWh system that is being developed alongside 238 MW of solar under Bulgaria’s largest hybrid power project to date, due for completion next year.

Vienna-based independent power producer Renalfa IPP has commissioned the first phase of a large-scale battery energy storage system (BESS) in Bulgaria.

The company has brought online 65 MW/260 MWh of a planned 315 MW/760 MWh battery energy storage system (BESS) as part of the Tenevo Hybrid Renewable Project.

Located in southeastern Bulgaria, the hybrid project is being developed by Tenevo Solar Technology, a joint venture company between Renalfa IPP and Danish developer Eurowind Energy. Chinese energy storage company Hithium and Chinese power solutions provider Kehua are supplying the BESS technology, while Bulgarian developer Solarpro is acting as project manager.

Once completed, the Tenevo project will encompass a 238 MW solar site alongside the 315 MW/760 MWh BESS and 250 MW of wind turbines, making it Bulgaria’s largest and most complex hybrid energy storage project to date. It is due for completion early next year.

The project is financed by The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development and Raiffeisen Bank International AG.

In August, Eurowind Energy announced the first 69 MW of the 238 MW solar farm had come online.

According to a statement from Renalfa, the first phase of the BESS is already one of the largest co-located battery storage systems in Europe and takes its energy storage capacity in operation to in excess of 1 GWh.

The company, which is active in Bulgaria, Hungary, North Macedonia and Romania, also claims to have over 1 GW of projects in the late stages of development, as well as a wider project pipeline in excess of 4 GW.

Bulgaria inaugurated a 124 MW/496.2 MWh BESS in May, billed as the largest in the European Union to date. The country’s Ministry of Energy has since launched a public consultation on a new subsidy program targeting 1.9 GWh of standalone storage capacity.

CENSA Upcoming Events:

1. Dec.4-5 | 2025 China Energy Storage CEO Summit | Xiamen, Fujian

2. Apr. 1-3, 2026 | The 14th Energy Storage International Conference & Expo