Blackstone and Sunotec enter €250 million partnership across energy storage, grid upgrades

Solar and storage project developer Sunotec has announced a partnership with US investment firm Blackstone. The latter will invest around €250 million in Sunotec, as a structured equity investment funded via its Blackstone Tactical Opportunities business.

The deal is still subject to regulatory approvals, expected to close in the first half of 2026. Under the terms, Sunotec’s founders and leadership will remain the company’s majority shareholders and continue to control its strategy and operations. “With Blackstone as a partner, we will accelerate our expansion across Europe and enter selective new markets,” said Sunotec founder and CEO Kaloyan Velichkov.

An announcement from Sunotec states that the investment will support growth across its key European markets, mentioning Germany, the United Kingdom, Scandinavia and Southeast Europe. It also mentions expansions into new areas, including grid infrastructure.

Upgrading grids and integrating energy storage has emerged as a priority for Europe. Securing space to connect projects to already crowded grids has become a major bottleneck for project developers like Sunotec, which has installed around 5 GW of solar and 5 GWh of battery systems across various regions in the past two years.

Grid upgrades are proving slow to achieve, with a shortage of key components exacerbating already complex processes in many regions. Earlier in 2026, Sunotec announced it had acquired a majority share in German substation builder Kaufmann Electric, through which it is exploring approaches to speeding up construction of new grid infrastructure in the country. As the company looked to take a larger role in solving grid bottlenecks and other challenges, it found an increase in scale necessary.

“Projects are becoming larger and more complex, increasingly combining generation, storage, and grid infrastructure into integrated energy systems. Scaling this model requires long-term capital, international reach, and the ability to operate across the full infrastructure value chain,” a Sunotec representative told pv magazine.

The partnership is also set to support Sunotec’s independent power producer platform, operating projects as well as building them. The representative said that the move “reinforces our positioning around ‘energy as a system,’ where different components are planned and delivered as a single integrated platform.” In the short term, the company will focus on its existing project pipeline, while also developing its integrated platform and expanding into other high-growth markets.

“We are delighted to partner with the company as it continues to scale its integrated platform, expand its operating asset base and deepen its grid infrastructure capabilities,” Amer Khatoun, senior managing director at Blackstone Tactical Opportunities, said in a statement.

From pv magazine Global.