Overview
- On Thursday developers and investors announced three big moves: Vena Energy raised AU$1.4 billion to back 614MW of solar and 1,141MWh of storage in Australia, BW ESS broke ground on the 1,000MW/ up to 5,700MWh Klostermansfeld BESS in Germany, and Vopak took final investment decision on a 200MW/800MWh Oosterhout project in the Netherlands.
- Vena’s AU$1.4 billion package is split across two transactions and backed by lenders including BNP Paribas, ING and Sumitomo Mitsui, supporting operational assets, projects under construction and adjacent BESS developments such as a 408MWh unit at Tailem Bend that began construction in December 2025.
- BW ESS’s Klostermansfeld project is sited at a central substation in Saxony‑Anhalt and is designed to supply long‑duration power to help manage peak loads and strengthen regional grid stability, with the developer calling it one of Germany’s largest storage builds.
- Data published for June show Australia’s tracked fleet of 55 grid‑scale BESS earned an estimated AU$17.98 million but captured only 32% of the theoretical energy‑arbitrage revenue, leaving about AU$34.9 million uncollected and highlighting gaps in forecasting, bidding and state‑of‑charge management.
- Regulatory signals and large developer pipelines, such as AEMO’s recent ISP and capacity tender awards, plus new financing and long‑term revenue contracts, are making multi‑GWh projects bankable and point to multi‑year buildouts with operational targets like Vopak’s H1 2028 start date for Oosterhout.