Italy broke new ground in energy storage with its very first battery storage auction, competitively awarding the full 10 gigawatt hours (GWh) of capacity put up for tender. One standout among the awards is GreenVolt, which bagged a 499 MWh battery project in southern Italy’s Calabria. The project is expected to be GreenVolt’s first long-duration, 8-hour, lithium-ion system in the country. Additionally, Enel, the country’s dominant energy utility, secured more than half of the auction’s capacity across five projects. According to grid operator Terna, total investment from Italy’s first battery storage auction is estimated to be around €1 billion.
Project Factsheet: GreenVolt 499 MWh Battery in Italy
Developer: Portugal-based GreenVolt
Location: Southern Italy, Calabria region
Capacity: 499 MWh, 8-hour lithium-ion system
Technology: Long-duration lithium-ion battery
Contract: Awarded under Italy’s first battery storage auction (MACSE)
Revenue Model: Fixed revenues over 15 years for contracted capacity to the grid
Operational by Date: 2028
Significance: GreenVolt’s first Italian long-duration battery project
Timeline Set for Enel, GreenVolt Battery Storage Project, Others in Italy Auction Win
October 2025: Italy’s first national battery storage auction closes. Enel wins about half of awarded capacity. GreenVolt among auction winners
2026-2027: Expected permitting, design, and early works phases for awarded projects
By 2028: Contracted deadline for full commissioning and grid delivery under a 15-year MACSE framework
A Look at Italy’s First Battery Storage Auction
Winning participants of the tender will receive fixed revenues over a 15-year contract for capacity made available to the grid. This, among other terms, also seem to be structured to reduce the risk faced by investors. Additionally, the awarded projects must be operational by 2028.
Plenitude which is Eni’s renewable arm also won two projects totaling to 500 MWh. Other winning developers in the auction include ACL Energy with 2.1 GWh, Whysol Investments with 570 MWh, and Renewable AdVenture. Italian company, Scara Energia also bagged a 250 MWh project in the country’s first battery storage auction capped at 10 GWh.
Regional and Market Impact of the Auction
Italy’s first battery storage auction marks a shift on outlook from only deploying renewables like wind and solar to incentivizing storage. This goes to earmark the importance of batteries in integrating intermittent generation, avoiding grid restrictions, and improving power supply reliability.
The auction follows Italy-based renewable battery company, GCSS, and CIP‘s announcement of plans for a 2.3 GW pipeline of BESS projects across Northern and Southern Italy in March this year.
The fixed revenue model allocated to the projects from the auction also help lessen risk on market entry into battery storage. This is by simply reducing exposure to volatile market price signals. For developers, this push stabilizes revenue forecasts and ultimately, investment viability.
GreenVolt’s 8-hour battery also shows the taste for innovation. The 8-hour battery is a move beyond short-duration systems capped between 2 to 4 hours. GreenVolt’s 8-hour battery project is Italy’s Calabria is, in essence, a move toward systems that can act as energy reservoirs, not just peaking or ancillary assets.
