Increased renewable energy penetration in Europe’s leading clean energy markets will lead to more fluctuations in power prices, creating new opportunities for battery energy storage system (BESS) developers and co-located solar-plus-storage projects.
This was the sentiment expressed by panellists speaking on day one of Solar Media’s Energy Storage Summit 2026, held this week in London, who gave a number of examples of fluctuations in European power prices as an example of the kind of opportunities for the BESS sector to provide flexibility in the continent’s energy mix.
Try Premium for just $1
- Full premium access for the first month at only $1
- Converts to an annual rate after 30 days unless cancelled
- Cancel anytime during the trial period
Premium Benefits
- Expert industry analysis and interviews
- Digital access to PV Tech Power journal
- Exclusive event discounts
Or get the full Premium subscription right away
Or continue reading this article for free
“Volatility exists where we have the transition to renewables, or we have an amount of renewable penetration that’s quite high,” said Dan Moore, head of BESS asset management at Root Power. “Those markets are the most interesting ones—they’re certainly the most volatile ones.”
“Germany is the market, in Europe, that has the most sustained merchant opportunity, driven by the depth of its intra-day market [and] the depth of its trading opportunities,” said Alexa Strobel, head of strategy and analysis at Field Energy, starting a discussion on the power price environment that spanned several individual European countries.
Strobel went on to explain that high solar generation—she said that Germany added 17GW of new solar capacity in 2025, compared to ”like 2GW of operational batteries” at present—drove spot prices to lows of -€450/MWh in May last year, and this trend is unlikely to stop as more renewable energy capacity is deployed across the continent.
“In Spain, we have a lot of volatility driven by PV, for sure, reaching quite a lot of negative hours a day, which is quite good when it comes to the location of BESS,” said Mikel Pino, head of energy storage Europe at Exus Renewables. “We have a lot of power purchase agreements (PPAs) with no settlement at zero or negative prices, so it’s painful!”
Read the full version of this story on our sister site, Energy-Storage.news.
