Enertrag reaches financial close for 117 MWh French BESS project, chooses Huawei BESS

German renewable energy company Enertrag has reached financial close for its 39 MW / 117 MWh Les Sablons battery energy storage system (BESS) project in northern France. Located in Vendeuil, in France’s Hauts-de-France region, construction is already underway.

Renewable energy consultant Natural Power provided technical due diligence support to Enertrag for Les Sablons. The company said the project is one of the first three-hour duration BESS projects in France, and commercial operations are targeted for spring 2027. Enertrag said via a LinkedIn update that the Crédit Agricole group was key to the financing success without specifying exact arrangements.

An Enertrag representative confirmed to ESS News that Huawei will be the BESS OEM, with Gazel Energie as aggregator.

Julien Teixeira, senior technical adviser BESS at Natural Power, said Les Sablons will be co-located with wind generation assets. 

“Les Sablons is an important project in the development of France’s BESS market, combining three-hour storage duration with co-location alongside significant wind generation,” said Teixeira. 

Natural Power announced it had supported the financing process by carrying out due diligence on behalf of Enertrag. This included key technical and contractual aspects of the project, including permitting, grid connection agreements, engineering, procurement and construction (EPC), operations and maintenance (O&M) contracts, route-to-market arrangements, and technical inputs underpinning the financial model.

“We are pleased to have supported Enertrag through the technical due diligence process and to have contributed our BESS expertise to the financing of the project,” said Teixeira. 

For Enertrag, the financial close milestone follows recent progress elsewhere in Europe. Earlier this month, the company began construction of a 200 MW / 840 MWh BESS at Bertikow in the Uckermark district of Brandenburg, northeastern Germany. The project is being built with inverter technology supplied by SMA.