1.24GWh! Sungrow Supplies Europe's Largest Operational Energy Storage Project
On November 2, BW ESS announced that Phase I of the Hams Hall battery energy storage project in North Warwickshire, UK, had entered commercial operation. Phase I has a capacity of 350MW/1243MWh. By energy capacity, it is currently the largest operational energy storage system in Europe. And the record is set to rise further. Once Phase II is completed, Hams Hall will expand to 400MW/1424MWh.
From energisation to commercial operation in just 20 days
Hams Hall is located northeast of Birmingham, adjacent to National Grid's Hams Hall 400kV substation. BW ESS said the project took just 20 days from energisation to complete commissioning, testing and entry into commercial operation.
But that "speed" refers specifically to the post-grid-connection phase. It is not the full construction timeline. Construction of Hams Hall began in October 2024, and the 20-day figure refers to the final stage between system energisation and commercial operation.
BW ESS also said the project was built and commissioned within budget and entered operation ahead of schedule. Sungrow, Energy-IO, National Grid and the UK's National Energy System Operator, NESO, were among the partners involved in project delivery.
Phase II to add another 181MWh
Following the commissioning of Phase I, Hams Hall will continue to expand. Phase II will add another 50MW of power and 181MWh of capacity, taking the full project to:
- Power: 400MW
- Capacity: 1424MWh
- Duration: 3.56 hours
According to BW ESS, at full capacity Hams Hall can store enough electricity to supply around 1.3 million homes for up to 3.5 hours, roughly equivalent to the total number of households across Greater Manchester.
How do you convince banks to lend to a 1GWh project?
Whether a battery project can be built is an engineering question. How it makes money after completion, whether revenues can cover debt, and whether investors are willing to hold the asset over the long term are what ultimately determine whether the project can become an infrastructure asset.
At this scale, it is becoming increasingly difficult to rely on a simple "future arbitrage revenues" story when speaking to banks. Hams Hall has gradually brought together a long-term optimisation agreement, revenue protection, debt financing and equity capital.
▍First, put a floor under revenues
On April 28, 2026, BW ESS signed a 10-year floor and optimisation agreement with EDF.
EDF will optimise Phase I of Hams Hall through its PowerShift platform, dispatching the battery based on electricity supply and demand, market prices and grid requirements. EDF also said Hams Hall is the longest-duration battery storage project it has contracted to date.
The purpose of the agreement is to reduce the project's exposure to electricity price and power market volatility.
▍Then bring in the banks
On October 22, BW ESS announced that Hams Hall had secured debt financing. OCBC, Rabobank and Société Générale will provide the financing on an equal basis, with Rabobank also acting as facility agent.
More than 30 lenders were approached during the financing process. That suggests GWh-scale battery storage is already entering the project evaluation pipelines of a significant number of international banks.
▍Finally, add equity capital
Hams Hall is also not wholly owned by BW ESS. It forms part of the Ardenham storage portfolio jointly owned by BW ESS and AIP Management. The portfolio has a total capacity of around 2.6GWh and also includes the operational Bramley project and the Berkswell project currently under construction.
In September 2025, AIP agreed to acquire a 49% stake in the portfolio. BW ESS retained a 51% majority interest and continues to be responsible for construction and operations. AIP is an energy transition infrastructure investor backed by Storebrand and has invested more than €8 billion in infrastructure assets.
By bringing in AIP, BW ESS did not give up control of the project, but it secured a source of long-term equity capital and shared part of the capital burden and ownership risk associated with a GWh-scale project.
So Hams Hall is not relying entirely on post-commissioning peak-valley arbitrage revenues. Before commercial operation, it had already put in place a long-term optimisation agreement, revenue protection, equity capital and debt financing. The project's engineering delivery and commercial structure were, in effect, closed out in parallel.
Final thoughts
Hams Hall is also one of Sungrow's largest energy storage projects in Europe. In 2024, Sungrow announced that it would supply around 1.4GWh of PowerTitan 2.0 liquid-cooled energy storage systems for the project, involving 280 units, and said the systems were designed with grid-forming capability. The November 2 commercial operation announcement once again listed Sungrow as a key project partner.
Viewed in the context of Europe's large-scale storage market, what makes Hams Hall particularly notable is that three things have come together at the same time: more than 1GWh of operational capacity at a single site, a duration of around 3.5 hours, and the completion of long-term commercial agreements, equity funding and debt financing before commercial operation.
Competition in Europe's large-scale storage market is no longer only about equipment pricing and installed capacity. How large a project can be built, whether duration matches market demand, whether revenues are protected by long-term agreements, and whether banks and infrastructure funds are willing to commit capital are all becoming decisive factors in whether projects actually get built.
For GWh-scale storage, having enough equipment is now only the starting point. The real threshold is whether grid connection, operations, contracts and financing can be brought together so that every MWh of capacity becomes a cash flow that banks can underwrite and long-term investors are willing to hold.
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