Harmony Energy sells 200MW Poland BESS to EDF

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Michał Maćkowiak, executive director of Harmony Energy Poland, added: “We have ambitious plans for Poland, and this deal puts us in a strong position to develop, own and operate a significant portfolio in the country.”

The deal comes after a significant few months in the energy storage market in Poland, with another highly successful capacity market (CM) auction for BESS in December 2024 and independent power producer (IPP) enlisting BYD in February for two projects totalling 1.6GWh of capacity, which won contracts in the 2023 CM.

The CM, with its 17-year contracted revenues, is the bedrock of the business case for grid-scale storage, and storage has begun to dominate despite it having been intended for gas resources.

Harmony’s Maćkowiak has been a vocal commentator on the state of the Polish market for Energy-Storage.news.

He initially described a de-rating cut to c.60% for energy storage in the CM in mid-2024 as a potential ‘lethal blow’ to the market. He later softened his position on it when speaking at the Energy Storage Summit CEE 2024, though did tell us the CM might not end up being the most economical use of BESS capacity.

The firm’s announcement didn’t say whether the project won a CM contract in 2024, but a buyer like EDF would be unlikely to go for a merchant-only approach.

Harmony Energy is a UK-headquartered developer active primarily there but also now in France alongside Poland. It has a partnership with the Harmony Energy Income Trust (HEIT) fund which has first refusal on its UK projects, although that has stopped building UK projects and is in the process of trying to sell its entire 395.4MW/790.8MWh portfolio. Energy-Storage.news wrote a deep dive on that ongoing process in October (Premium access).

The European Commission has given the go-ahead to a scheme in Czechia that will support the deployment of 1.5GWh of energy storage projects.

EPC firm Suvic has been enlisted by UK-based IPP Renewable Power Capital (RPC) for a 50MW/100MWh BESS in Finland using Sungrow technology.

Renewco Power and Atlantica Sustainable Infrastructure will develop and build a pipeline of BESS projects in Spain.

Sweden-headquartered BESS developer-operator Ingrid Capacity will build a 70MW/140MWh project in Finland, which it claimed will be the largest in the country.

Utility Alabama Power will develop the state’s first utility-scale battery energy storage system (BESS) in Walker County, Alabama, US.