BW ESS secures green loan for 211 MWh of Swedish batteries

Zurich-based BESS owner-operator BW ESS has borrowed SEK 628 million ($64.8 million) from Finland’s Nordea Bank for its 14-project battery energy storage system (BESS) portfolio in Sweden. The transaction is the company’s first external financing and is understood to be the largest BESS financing in the Nordics to date.

BW ESS, which is majority owner of the 14 BESS that have a total scale of 211 MW/211 MWh, developed them with minority owner Ingrid Capacity, a grid optimization company based in Stockholm. BW Group invested around SEK 1 billion into Ingrid Capacity in April 2023.

According to BW ESS’ website, the 14 batteries which are the subject of the green loan are between 5 MW and 20 MW in scale and “generally” have an hour of storage capacity.

BW ESS is active in the UK, Australia, Italy, Germany, and Sweden.  It has more than 500 MWh of operating BESS projects, with over 1 GWh under construction and a development pipeline of about 7 GW.

With Ingrid Capacity alone, BW ESS has a more-than-500-MW BESS development pipeline with Ingrid Capacity and says the partners are assessing whether to expand into the other Nordic nations: Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, the Faroe Islands, Greenland, and Åland, according to the developer’s website.

Their Swedish portfolio was inaugurated by Sweden’s Minister for Climate and the Environment, Romina Pourmokhtari, in October last year.

“This financing is more than a milestone — it’s proof that the market sees what we see: battery storage is not just an emerging technology. It’s part of the core infrastructure of tomorrow’s energy system — essential for energy security, affordability, and decarbonization,” said Axel Holmberg, CEO of Ingrid Capacity. “We deeply value our partnership with BW ESS and Nordea — both of whom share our conviction in the critical role of storage and our commitment to delivering impact across Europe.”