Recurrent Energy, a subsidiary of Canadian Solar, has sold two standalone battery energy storage projects in France to BW ESS, a global energy storage owner operator. The portfolio comprises the Baixas project in Pyrenees Orientales and the Coquainvilliers project in Calvados, each rated at 100 megawatts and 400 megawatt hours, for a combined 200 megawatts and 800 megawatt hours. No consideration was disclosed.
Both projects are in advanced development, with transmission level grid connection positions and, the seller said, very limited expected network constraints. Recurrent will continue to lead both projects through their remaining development milestones until they reach ready to build status. BW ESS will then lead construction and commercial operation, and intends to own and operate the assets over the long term.
The acquisition is BW ESS’s entry into France, its seventh market, alongside the United Kingdom, Australia, Italy, Germany, Spain and Sweden. The company has more than 540 megawatt hours of operating storage, about 12 gigawatt hours under or pre construction, and a development pipeline of several gigawatts.
At four hours of duration, the two French systems are longer duration than most battery projects traded in France to date, which have typically been two hour systems. That choice is a bet that French flexibility revenues will reward duration, for grid balancing over longer peaks, rather than only fast frequency response.