Germany invests in energy storage project in Hamburg

German battery energy storage: a key technology for grid integration? While Germany's new coalition government has made the right noises about energy storage in its written agreement, the lack of concrete reform and legal certainty in the terms used is not enough for investors to bank on.

Return has acquired a majority stake in Hamburg-based J&P Batterie Projekte GmbH with a €50 mln investment and commitment. The acquisition is the next step in Return's expansion in the German renewable energy market. With a pipeline of over 4 Gigawatt of storage projects, J&P is well positioned to accelerate energy storage throughout Europe.

ECO STOR GmbH has become the market leader for battery storage plants in Germany with a market share of around 20%. It has successfully built approximately 100 MWh of storage projects in Germany, serving as a co-developer and EPC partner. The company boasts a pipeline of over 6 GW, out of which 1.5 GW are in advanced stages of development.

The 130MWh Electric Thermal Energy Storage (ETES) demonstration project, commissioned in Hamburg-Altenwerder, Germany, in June 2019, is the precursor of future energy storage solutions with gigawatt-scale charging and discharging capacities. Siemens Gamesa, Hamburg University of Technology, and Hamburg Energie.

With a pipeline of over 4 Gigawatt of storage projects, J&P is well positioned to accelerate energy storage throughout Europe. Storage is the bottleneck of the energy transition. The challenge presents a new frontier for developers and investors and will contribute to the European Net Zero Emissions by 2050 target.

While Germany's new coalition government has made the right noises about energy storage in its written agreement, the lack of concrete reform and legal certainty in the terms used is not enough for investors to bank on. The energy transition requires a fundamental restructuring of the energy supply system.