Hamburg-headquartered Aquila Clean Energy EMEA has reached financial close on Project Wetzen, a standalone 56 MW / 112 MWh battery energy storage system near Lüneburg in Lower Saxony, with ING Deutschland providing roughly EUR26 million ($30 million) of senior debt. Aquila Capital described the package on June 9 as one of the first fully merchant BESS financings in the German market, removing the contracted-revenue floors lenders have historically required for grid-scale storage.
Why Merchant Financing Matters
Until now most German storage projects had to be backed by long-dated tolling agreements or balance-sheet equity because lenders were unwilling to underwrite price risk in the merchant intraday and balancing markets. ING's senior debt is sized purely against modelled merchant revenue from Project Wetzen, which Aquila says proves grid-scale batteries can stand on their own commercial cash flows in Germany's wholesale, intraday and frequency-regulation markets.
How The Asset Will Earn
The two-hour battery system will provide primary and secondary frequency regulation services and trade across day-ahead, intraday and balancing markets. Munich-based optimisation specialist Entrix has been mandated to commercialise the asset, applying its algorithmic dispatch platform across a portfolio that includes a second similarly sized Aquila battery. The facility uses lithium iron phosphate (LFP) cells — free of nickel and cobalt — supplied by China's Trina Storage as part of a 106 MW / 212 MWh frame agreement with Aquila announced earlier this year.
Inside The Pipeline
Project Wetzen is the first of 14 storage projects Aquila intends to build out across Germany, totalling more than 900 MW. Construction broke ground in November 2024, with commercial operation now expected this summer after a brief delay from the original early-2026 target. The company has secured grid connection at a former substation site that gives it priority dispatch into the 110 kV transmission network — a key competitive advantage as German interconnection queues lengthen.
Wider European Storage Wave
The close lands as European storage developers race to finalise project pipelines ahead of EU Commission moves to relax fiscal-rule constraints on grid and clean-energy spending. It also follows a string of hyperscale battery deals tied to AI infrastructure including GM and Peak Energy's sodium-ion data centre play, Waymo's second-life robotaxi battery program with B2U Storage, and Factorial Energy's Nasdaq listing.
Reporting based on coverage from ESS News, pv magazine Deutschland and Aquila Clean Energy EMEA.