Zenobe has bought the Bavarian developer SDP Energie to enter Germany’s battery storage market, taking on 1.75 gigawatts of transmission-scale projects as investment floods in ahead of a 2029 grid-fee deadline.
Germany’s battery storage market has become one of the most active in Europe, and a British operator wants a share of it. Zenobe, the UK-based storage and EV charging firm, has bought SDP Energie, a battery developer based in Bavaria. The deal, announced on 27 July, is Zenobe’s first move into Germany.
The purchase hands Zenobe a pipeline of six transmission-level battery projects totalling 1.75 gigawatts of capacity. SDP’s wider development pipeline runs to 4 gigawatts. The logic is a simple division of labour, because SDP knows the German grid and its rules, while Zenobe brings experience of building and running large transmission-connected batteries in Britain.
Why Germany, and why now
Timing explains much of the deal. In May, German regulators set a deadline of 4 August 2029 for storage projects to connect and avoid charge-discharge grid fees. That single decision restored investor confidence and set off a rush. Energy-Storage.News counts roughly 15 gigawatt-hours of large-scale battery capacity announced since the ruling at the end of May.
The activity keeps coming. On the day the Zenobe deal was reported, the power company RWE said it had begun building a 236-megawatt battery at its Hambach open-cast mine, due for commissioning in 2027. Germany’s market is also tilting towards longer four-hour batteries, with revenues drawn more from wholesale energy trading than in the UK.
What Zenobe brings
Zenobe has built its reputation on transmission-scale storage in Britain. It has been one of the first movers in using batteries to provide grid-forming services such as inertia, through its Kilmarnock South and Blackhillock projects in Scotland. That market is now starting to open in Germany too. The company also financed the UK’s first four-hour battery, the 200-megawatt, 800 megawatt-hour Coalburn project.
Johannes Steck, co-founder of SDP Energie, said the German market rewards patience. “Developing transmission-connected battery storage projects in Germany requires deep local expertise, persistence and trusted relationships,” he said.
A buyer with more shopping to do
Zenobe has signalled this is a starting point. “We intend to buy more transmission scale projects and to work with leading offtake providers looking for a proven partner for flexibility services,” said James Basden, co-founder and director at Zenobe.
The acquisition adds Zenobe to a widening field of investors chasing German storage returns. As Germany pushes for 80 per cent renewables by 2030, its grid needs far more flexibility, and the batteries now being financed are meant to supply it.
