Germany: 245 MW more batteries announced for ‘early 2026’

France’s TotalEnergies has announced plans to more than treble its under-construction German battery fleet and municipal utility RheinEnergie and SMA Altenso, a subsidiary of energy storage and inverter company SMA, are also planning to join forces to develop grid-scale batteries in the country.

TotalEnergies today announced it will invest €160 million in six German BESS with a total energy capacity of 221 MW, developed by the Kyon Energy business it acquired last year.

With 100 MW of that BESS capacity already under construction, TotalEnergies said the six batteries would be complete by “early 2026” and “most” would incorporate batteries from its Saft business.

The energy company, which has a 2 GW German energy storage development pipeline, of which 321 MW is now under construction, did not reveal where the projects will be located or what storage capacities they would have.

SMA’s battery integrator unit Altenso yesterday announced it wants to develop “several hundred megawatts” of BESS in partnership with City of Cologne-owned RheinEnergie.

The first planned site to take shape under the arrangement will be a 24.5 MW/64 MWh BESS on a 3,000 m² site in Einbeck, a municipality in the district of Northeim, in Lower Saxony. That project, where construction has begun, is also due in early 2026.

The partnership will see SMA Altenso develop, build, and maintain the BESS, as technology partner. RheinEnergie, which is entering the market for electricity sales from storage sites for the first time, will perform operational maintenance of the BESS.