Germany Energy Storage Analysis

The German 'Energiewende' (Energy Transition) has resulted in one of the highest penetrations of variable renewable energy (VRE) in the world. As the country phases out baseload nuclear and coal generation, the demand for flexible capacity has skyrocketed. The German market is characterized by a strong, interconnected European grid, but suffers from severe internal transmission bottlenecks between the wind-heavy north and the industrial, demand-heavy south. Battery storage is critical for frequency containment reserves (FCR) and is increasingly capturing value in the volatile intraday continuous trading markets (EPEX SPOT).