Number of notable strategic BESS acquisitions in Poland in last year, with asset rotation model becoming more evident
ENGIE’s announcement last week that it had acquired a 438 MW/876 MWh energy storage asset in Poland’s Łódź region, provided further evidence that utility-scale BESS is becoming a highly investable infrastructure asset class in the country. Over the last 12 months, the Polish storage market has seen a number of notable strategic acquisitions and sizeable project-finance transactions. The sector is becoming increasingly attractive to international infrastructure investors alongside an increasingly active banking community.
In November last year, Northland Power acquired two Polish BESS projects – totalling 300 MW /1.2 GWh – from Greenvolt Power Group. The projects – Mieczysławów (200 MW/800 MWh) and Kamionka (100 MW/400 MWh) – each have a four-hour duration and are located in western Poland. A portion of revenue is secured under 17-year capacity auction contracts indexed to inflation, and additional revenue is expected to be generated via energy arbitrage and participation in ancillary service markets. It is estimated that the projects will have a total cost of €200 million. Northland Power said that, once operational, the projects will be “some of the first BESS facilities operating in Poland”. BNP Paribas acted as exclusive financial adviser to Northland Power.
Emerging asset rotation model
Greenvolt’s disposal of the projects has been highlighted as an indication of an emerging asset-rotation model in Polish battery storage. This means developers such as Greenvolt can monetise projects once they have secured grid access, permits and contracted capacity revenues, while infrastructure investors can acquire de-risked assets and deploy capital into construction and long-term ownership. Greenvolt is backed by private equity investment firm KKR, and the sale of the storage projects means it is able to recycle capital and accelerate the deployment of clean energy projects.
DRI, the EU renewables arm of Ukrainian energy company DTEK has adopted a similar strategy to Northland Power – in September last year, DRI expanded its activities in Poland with the acquisition of rights to build a BESS in Kozienice, located in the east-central part of the country. The 112MW/448MWh project – which was also acquired from Greenvolt Group – was secured at the ready-to-build stage, with “all necessary administrative approvals, permits, and grid connection agreements in place for immediate construction”, according to DRI. Meanwhile, in June this year, DRI secured approximately PLN 470 million ($127.8m/€110.8m) in project financing from a group of lenders to build the 133-MW Trzebinia BESS in Poland. The non-recourse financing was arranged with Erste Bank Polska, PKO Bank Polski and UniCredit, and is backed by a guarantee from Polish export credit agency KUKE under a state-supported energy transition investment programme. The transaction represented one of the first and largest standalone battery energy storage project financings in Poland. The financing is seen as an important proof point for lenders assessing whether storage can support conventional project-finance structures.
Storage demand soaring
Demand for energy storage in Poland will soar in the coming decade largely because the country’s cumulative renewable energy capacity will comfortable more than double between now and 2035 to exceed 91.5GW (see chart from GlobalData below).
With renewable energy capacity surging, Poland is prioritising large scale battery storage buildout. The country’s four capacity auctions allocated 5.1 GW of BESS capacity across delivery years 2027 to 2030. According to an analysis by Modo Energy, as of April 2026, while only 483MW of battery storage was operational, 650MW was under construction, 13.GW had signed agreements, and a massive 82.9GW held connection conditions – meaning that, while the asset may have not been built yet, it has permission to connect to the grid (see chart below). R.Power and Mithra Energy are among the developers with the biggest BESS pipelines.
The financing landscape is broadening beyond commercial banks. In December 2025, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development disclosed a proposed €60 million senior secured loan for Greenvolt’s Ełk and Turośń projects, each sized at 200 MW/800 MWh. The EBRD described the transaction as one of Poland’s first limited-recourse financings for standalone BESS, with revenues combining capacity-market support and merchant participation in the balancing market. The same projects have subsequently attracted a much larger commercial financing package – last month, Greenvolt secured €218 million from UniCredit for the two schemes, which included €153 million of bridge facilities and a €65 million guarantee facility.
Elsewhere, Spanish developer Grenergy secured 17-year capacity contracts for five Polish standalone storage projects – totalling 534 MW/2.1 GWh – in the latest capacity auction organised by Polskie Sieci Elektroenergetyczne (PSE), the country’s electricity system operator. In total, Grenergy secured more than 11 per cent of the total storage capacity offered in the auction, which provides a substantial contracted component around which future project financing can be structured. Starting in January 2030, these services will be remunerated at a fixed price (indexed to CPI) of PLN 465.02/kW (€107/kw) per year throughout the 17‑year contract period. In total, the company has obtained a guaranteed minimum economic allocation exceeding €132 million.
For investors and lenders, the attraction of Poland is therefore increasingly clear: substantial renewable build-out, growing system-balancing requirements and a regulatory framework that can provide long-duration contracted revenues. The investment proposition is nevertheless becoming more sophisticated. Capacity payments alone are unlikely to justify every project, particularly as the market develops and accreditation rules evolve – investors will increasingly underwrite merchant upside from wholesale arbitrage, balancing and ancillary services alongside contracted revenues. The next phase should therefore see more M&A, refinancing and portfolio-level transactions as projects move from development into construction and operation. For now, the participation of KKR, Northland Power and DTEK, together with BNP Paribas, UniCredit, Erste, PKO Bank Polski, the EBRD, and KUKE, shows that Poland is already developing the institutional and financing ecosystem required for a sizeable BESS market.
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