Source: Energy Storage News

RWE and stakeholders groundbreaking on its Gundremmingen BESS project, the largest in Germany. Image: RWE.

Power firm RWE has launched construction on a 400MW/700MWh BESS project in Bavaria, Germany, the largest being built in the country.

The Germany-headquartered firm announced the start of construction on the project yesterday (29 October), in a ceremony attended by Bavarian Minister-President Dr Markus Söder (pictured above, second from left).

The 1.75-hour duration battery energy storage system (BESS) project is being built alongside the Gundremmingen nuclear power plant, which is undergoing decommissioning, and will use the plant’s existing grid connection.

RWE is investing around €230 million (US$267 million) in the BESS, which will comprise 200 container units and 100 inverters, and is expected online in 2028. It will take the title of largest BESS online from Eco Stor’s 103.5MW/238MWh Bollingstedt, commissioned earlier this year, as well as Eco Stor’s pipeline of 300MW/600MWh projects.

Söder commented: “Gundremmingen remains a key location in the Bavarian energy supply. In addition to the new battery storage facility, a 55-hectare solar park and a gas-fired power station are also set to be built. With an output of 400 MWand a capacity of over 700MWh, the battery storage facility will stabilise the grid when there is no wind or sunlight.”

Germany has emerged in the past few years as one of Europe’s most attractive markets for large-scale BESS investment, with large opportunities in its wholesale energy market (Europe’s deepest) and helpful regulatory changes including an exemption from charge-discharge grid fees for BESS projects put into operation by 2029.

Those opportunities are set to grow as the country deploys more wind and solar, and solar trade body BSW-Solar recently called for 100GWh of BESS deployments by 2030.

We recently caught up with German BESS platform Terra One to discuss the market drivers, regulatory challenges and the trade-offs when opting for a merchant or toll-based strategy in the country.

(By Cameron Murray)

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

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

Source: Energy Storage News

Energy Storage Europe Association secretary general Patrick Clerens, speaking at the 2025 Energy Storage Summit EU. Clerens' consulting company formed the group with industry stakeholders in 2011. Image: Solar Media.

European Association for Storage of Energy (EASE), which represents 70 member organisations across the industry value chain, has undergone a rebrand.

Now called Energy Storage Europe Association, the change marks “a new chapter for our organisation and the entire sector,” said Patrick Clerens, the group's secretary general, whose consulting group was tasked with launching EASE back in 2011.

“Europe's energy future depends on energy storage. Our new identity will amplify this message to ensure we are at the heart of policy debates,” Clerens said.

Its activities include advocacy in the decision-making processes of European policymakers and regulators; direct participation in European Union (EU) research projects; providing market intelligence, including the European Market Monitor on Energy Storage (EMMES) reports; and networking and media engagement.

EMMES is published annually by the trade association and research consultancy LCP Delta. The most recent edition, EMMES 9.0, found that 11.9GW/21.1GWh of energy storage was deployed across Europe in 2024, including 4.9GW/12.1GWh of front-of-the-meter storage.

Meanwhile, the organisation's advocacy and education efforts include a recent call for common safety standards across European markets and a best practice guide to fire safety for outdoor utility-scale lithium-ion battery energy storage system (BESS) installations.

“In 2025, Europe added new energy storage power capacity at a scale 15 times greater than just five years ago. With this unprecedented growth, a more visible identity was essential to the Association,” Energy Storage Europe Association president David Post said.

“We will continue to represent the entire value chain and all storage technologies, advocating for policies that enable the needed flexibility and strongest deployment across Europe,” said Post, who is also Enel X head of energy storage solutions.

Energy Storage Association Europe's rebrand this week reflects a broader push for increased visibility and stronger representation among industry bodies of late.

The energy storage association is itself part of Europe's Energy Storage Coalition, formed alongside counterparts in the wind and solar PV industry to advocate for a Europe-wide policy action plan on storage.

SolarPower Europe, while a member of the coalition alongside EASE, WindEurope and Bill Gates's VC group Breakthrough Energy, also founded the Battery Storage Europe Platform earlier this year.

That said, Battery Storage Europe Platform is less of a trade association and more of a direct initiative to engage policymakers and regulators, SolarPower Europe said at the July launch.

In the US, the country's only national Energy Storage Association (ESA) merged with a wind industry group in 2021, becoming part of the American Clean Power Association (ACP).

However, ACP then launched its own separate energy storage effort a few weeks ago, called, confusingly enough, the US Energy Storage Coalition.

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

RWE Starts Building Germany’s Largest BESS

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EASE Rebrands as Energy Storage Europe Association for Era of ‘Unprecedented Growth’

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