GoldenPeaks Capital has acquired two battery energy storage system (BESS) projects in Poland totaling 54MW of power and 216MWh of capacity, marking the renewables investor and IPP's entry into the Polish market. The acquisition was completed under a preliminary share purchase agreement concluded on June 6 from an unnamed seller.

GoldenPeaks Battery Storage Acquisition Details

The two acquired projects have both secured contracts in the 2024 Capacity Market (CM) auction, providing 17 years of guaranteed revenues in return for availability starting in 2029. The first project, Baczyna, totals 46MW/184MWh and will connect to a 110kV high voltage network. 

The second project, Jelenia Góra, totals 8MW/32MWh and will connect to a 20kV medium voltage network. Poland is investing significantly in grid-scale energy storage, with Jakub Jaworowski, minister of state assets, calling the technology a "guarantee of Poland's energy security" in March. 

The CM alone has contracted around 4.4GW of BESS capacity to come online from 2027-2029, mostly with 4-hour durations, and other schemes will also support deployments in the coming years.

R.Power Hybrid Project Optimization Partnership

Developer and IPP R.Power has partnered with EPC, trading and renewables solutions firm Photon Energy to optimize a hybrid solar and storage project in Poland. The project in Nehrybka, in the Podkarpackie region, is one of the first hybrid assets in Poland that combines a PV installation with energy storage, according to R.Power. 

This development comes two months after R.Power announced construction on a 254MWh project in Romania. Under the agreement, Photon Energy will be responsible for optimizing energy flows within the installation and between the installation and the grid. 

Photon will act as the balancing responsible party and a provider of balancing services, enabling the project to participate in both the wholesale energy market and also provide balancing services to the grid.

Market Context and Industry Response

Georg Hotar, CEO of Photon Energy Group, stated that "R.Power is one of the first companies in Poland actively responding to the phenomenon of negative energy prices during periods of overproduction in the power system." 

He added, "We believe our optimisation services benefit not only asset owners but also the entire energy system. During peak production periods, energy can be stored and then fed back into the grid when production declines. Since these systems charge from renewable sources, they genuinely support the acceleration of the low-emission energy transition." Power purchase agreements (PPAs), offtake and optimization deals covering both the solar and storage portion of hybrid projects are still relatively rare in Europe, but are expected to become increasingly common. Last month saw IPP Zelestra and Portuguese utility EDP sign what they claimed was the first solar-plus-storage PPA in Spain. 

The developments in Poland's energy storage sector coincide with Solar Media's preparation to host the third Energy Storage Summit Central and Eastern Europe in Warsaw, Poland, on September 23-24.