GIGA Storage Closes €260 Million Financing for the 1.4 GWh Albatross Battery in Germany

Dutch developer GIGA Storage has closed €260 million of debt financing for Albatross, a 350 MW, 1,400 MWh battery near Neuenkirchen in Lower Saxony. It signed a grid connection contract with the transmission operator Amprion on 14 October, and construction is due to start in early 2027.

The project

Albatross is a four-hour system, GIGA Storage's first in Germany. Seven banks provide the debt: ABN AMRO, Hamburg Commercial Bank, ING, Rabobank, Siemens Bank, SMBC and Société Générale. White & Case, which advised the lenders, says the storage capacity is comparable to the daily electricity use of about 193,000 German households.

CATL will handle engineering, construction and maintenance, working with European subcontractors. ESS News reports 264 battery containers, 96 medium-voltage transformers and two high-voltage transformers.

Grid connection and timing

The battery will connect directly to Amprion's 380 kV network at the Merzen substation. Amprion described the contract as its first grid connection agreement for a large-scale battery storage facility.

ESS News says commissioning is now planned for early 2029, later than the 2028 originally planned. We could not find a reason for the change in the sources we opened.

What this means for households

A battery at this scale does not replace a home battery. It does show how much investment is flowing into grid-scale storage in Germany, where home storage is also growing quickly. Together they help absorb surplus solar power and cover evening demand.

In Britain, a similar story played out with BW ESS's financing for a 400 MW battery at Hams Hall. For German household rules and incentives, see our Germany country guide.

Sources

• White & Case: White & Case advises bank consortium on financing for Albatross energy storage project
• ESS News: Giga Storage secures financing, grid connection for 1.4 GWh CATL BESS project in Germany

Related guides

Keep reading, or check your own numbers:

• BW ESS secures financing for 400 MW Hams Hall battery
• Germany country guide
• Eku Energy buys a 300 MW battery site at Didcot