Pacific Green Technologies, through its Italian subsidiary, has acquired a 51% stake in five battery energy storage system (BESS) projects in Italy from Sphera Energy.

This portfolio has a total capacity of 500MW/2.8 gigawatt-hours.

The company will buy the remaining 49% interest in the projects once they reach specified development milestones.

An application for the first 100MW BESS project, to be located in Campania, has been submitted to the Ministry of Environment and Energy Security.

The remaining four projects are expected to be finalised in early 2024. The final permissions for all five are expected in the fourth quarter of the year.

Pacific Green will be responsible for the design and construction of the projects.

To become operational by the end of 2025, they are projected to have a 35-year lifespan.

Pacific Green CEO Scott Poulter stated: “Building upon our success with the development and sale of Pacific Green’s 100MWh [megawatt-hour] Richborough Energy Park and the development of the 375MWh Sheaf Energy in the UK, Italy represents the next step in Pacific Green’s European expansion into other markets where battery assets will be key in enabling national and EU net-zero targets.

“In Italy, where market conditions favour longer duration projects, we expect this portfolio to have an energy capacity of between two and three gigawatt hours.”

Sphera Energy partner and CEO Mahael Fedele stated: “Following our launch 12 months ago as one of Italy’s first fully dedicated battery storage development platforms, we are thrilled to enter into this partnership with Pacific Green to deliver high-quality projects in the rapidly growing Italian energy storage market.”