Construction Begins on Large-Scale Battery Storage Facility in Bavaria

October 19, 2026

Source: E & M powernews

A battery storage facility with 20 MW of power and 100,000 kWh of capacity is being built in Ansbach. The facility is not intended for market-oriented use but rather to support the grid.

On October 15, Nuremberg-based N-Ergie Netz GmbH and renewable energy project developer Max Solar GmbH began construction in Middle Franconia on a battery storage facility with a capacity of 20 MW and 100,000 kWh. The facility is being built in the Winterschneidbach district of Ansbach and, according to the companies, is “currently the largest grid-supporting battery storage facility in Germany under Section 11a of the Energy Industry Act (EnWG).”

The facility is being built directly next to the Winterschneidbach substation in the service area of the distribution system operator N-Ergie Netz. It is designed to store excess electricity from renewable energy sources and feed it back into the distribution grid at a later time when sufficient grid capacity is available. At full capacity, the storage facility could deliver its nominal energy output over a period of five hours.

Unlike market-driven battery storage systems, the facility’s operation will be primarily geared toward the needs of the distribution grid. The goal is to make better use of existing grid capacity and to integrate additional renewable generation facilities into the power grid.

“Grid-supporting storage systems can make an important contribution to using existing grid capacities more efficiently and to supplementing the need for expansion in a targeted manner,” says Kerstin Fröhlich, managing director of N-Ergie-Netz.

Max Solar Wins Tender

According to the company, MaxSolar prevailed against more than 20 competitors in the grid operator’s tender. The project has been coordinated with the Federal Network Agency and, according to the project partners, is one of the first applications of its kind in the German distribution grid.

N-Ergie Netz operates an electricity grid approximately 29,000 kilometers long that supplies Nuremberg, large parts of Middle Franconia, and neighboring areas. The grid area covers about 8,000 square kilometers. According to the company, more than 170,000 renewable energy generation facilities are already connected to the grid there.

To accommodate additional renewable generation capacity, the distribution system operator plans to further expand its grid infrastructure in the coming years. The battery storage facility in Winterschneidbach is intended to help balance out time differences between electricity generation and available grid capacity.

The companies did not provide details in their press release regarding the investment volume, the planned commissioning date, or the contractual compensation for grid-supporting storage operations.

Author: Katia Meyer-Tien