Seven international banks have agreed to lend €260 million for Albatross, which is the first German project of the Amsterdam-based GIGA Storage. With the financing in place, the 350 MW/1.4 GWh BESS in Lower Saxony, Germany, has reached financial close, and its construction by CATL is to begin in early 2027, ahead of operation in early 2029.
Storage size: 350 MW/1.4 GWh
Debt financing: €260 million
Lenders: Seven banks
EPC and maintenance: CATL
Grid operator: Amprion
Grid connection: 380 kV
Construction start: Early 2027
Operation: Early 2029
GIGA Storage, an Amsterdam-based operator of large-scale energy storage projects, has closed the financing of Albatross, a 350 MW/1.4 GWh BESS in Lower Saxony, Germany. A consortium of seven international banks is providing a debt package of €260 million, and financial close was reached on 23 October 2026. Construction is to begin in early 2027, and the plant is expected to be in operation in early 2029.
The lenders are ABN AMRO, Hamburg Commercial Bank, ING, Rabobank, Siemens Financial Services through Siemens Bank, SMBC and Société Générale, and ING also acted as financial adviser. Before the close, GIGA Storage had settled the permits, the land contracts and the supplier contracts. CATL is to engineer, build and maintain the plant with several European subcontractors. Albatross is the first project of the company in Germany, and with it GIGA Storage now has approximately 1.4 GW/5.6 GWh under construction, after the 300 MW Leopard in the Netherlands and the 700 MW Green Turtle in Belgium.
The financing of this project in Germany shows that banks are keen to continue investing in the energy transition and that this confidence extends beyond national borders. A significant portion of the banking consortium for our Green Turtle project in Belgium has also joined the Albatross project, and we are very pleased to have onboarded new lenders as well. The support of our banking partners is essential to continue developing new large-scale energy storage projects and thus tackle the challenges of grid congestion across Europe.Animesh Ranjan, Chief Investment Officer of GIGA Storage
The grid side of the project had been settled nine days before the close. On 14 October 2026, GIGA Storage signed a grid connection agreement with Amprion, the German transmission system operator, under which Albatross will be connected directly to the adjacent 380 kV Merzen substation. The agreement is one of the first of its kind that Amprion has signed for large-scale energy storage. Its 1.4 GWh is comparable to the daily energy use of approximately 193,000 German households.
Albatross demonstrates that large-scale energy storage is indeed moving from plan to reality. Battery storage can balance generation and consumption and keep the electricity system flexible, efficient and secure. By the end of 2030, we aim to connect up to 35 GW of customer projects to our grid, including more energy storage.Dr. Christoph Müller, Chief Executive Officer of Amprion
Albatross joins a German market in which large batteries have been moving ahead quickly. In October 2026 alone, Fluence was chosen to build a 1 GWh BESS at Brunsbüttel for Vattenfall, Enlight and ENERTRAG started the construction of an 840 MWh BESS, and N-ERGIE and MaxSolar began work on a 100 MWh project.