BW ESS and Zelos are partnering to develop a 1.5GW battery energy storage system (BESS) project in Germany. The project aims to reach the ready-to-build (RTB) stage between 2025 and 2027. Zelos will focus on securing land, grid connections, and permits, while BW ESS will handle engineering, design, construction, procurement, revenue generation, and project financing.
Germany's large and liquid power market is considered highly attractive for BESS investment. While ancillary services currently provide lucrative revenue, the long-term potential lies in arbitrage and shifting energy to peak demand hours, mitigating the risk of market saturation.
BW ESS, a subsidiary of BW Group, is a major international BESS owner-operator. The company recently commissioned a large-scale project in the UK and has ongoing projects in Sweden and Italy, along with operations in Australia. The company emphasizes a multi-market approach to the BESS industry.
Bird & Bird served as legal advisor and Arcadis as the technical advisor to BW ESS. Jochen Terpitz provided legal counsel to Zelos.
BW ESS and developer Zelos are aiming to have the projects reach RTB stage between 2025 and 2027. Zelos will lead on securing land, grid and permits while BW ESS wil lead of engineering design, construction, procurement, securing revenues and project financing.Â
Germany is Europe’s largest and most liquid power market, BW ESS said, something many say makes it the most attractive for BESS investment on the continent. This is because the inevitable market saturation of ancillary services, today the main part of the revenue stack, should not have as much of drastic negative effect on revenues as it did in GB.Â
BW ESS executive director Roberto Jimenez discussed these market dynamics in an interview with Energy-Storage.news in February, describing the ancillary services opportunity today as “very lucrative,” but “tiny” when compared to the “larger and longer-term play…around arbitrage and shifting energy to the highest value hours of the day.”
Jimenez called Germany “certainly the hottest market in Europe today from a development perspective,” comparing it to Texas’ ERCOT market in terms of the depth of merchant revenue streams, while conceding that it will take “some time to build the pipeline and get all of the grid figured out.”
Bird & Bird acted as legal advisor and Arcadis acted as technical advisor to BW ESS, while legal counsel Jochen Terpitz acted as advisor to Zelos for the deal.Â
BW ESS is part of the large shipping and energy conglomerate BW Group, and has quickly emerged as one of the main international BESS owner-operators today. The firm recently brought online one of the UK’s largest operational BESS projects, the 100MW/331MWh Bramley project, which its CTO Nan Jian discussed recently at an event hosted by BESS provider Sungrow (Premium access).Â
In October 2024, BW ESS and its local development and optimisation partner Ingrid Capacity brought online a 211MW BESS portfolio in Sweden. Like many other international owner-operators, BW ESS is also preparing to enter the Italian market, and is also active in Australia. Its CEO, Erik Strømsø, gave an interview with Energy-Storage.news last May, where he discussed the firm’s approach to the BESS industry (Premium access).
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