Commercial Models for Utility-Scale BESS - How Investor Appetite Is Shaping the Development Process in Germany

With nearly 15 years of experience in investment banking and advisory, Chris brings deep exper-tise in M&A and JV deal origination across a wide range of renewable energy technologies, includ-ing solar, wind and energy storage, as well as the power, infrastructure and utilities sectors. Before joining Apricum, Chris spent a decade in Hong Kong, where he held key roles at top in-vestment banking and consulting companies. Most recently, he served as vice president, business development - renewable energy, APAC at ORIX, Hong Kong, where he was responsible for deal origination and business development to increase ORIX's renewable energy investment portfolio. Prior to that, he was a senior associate at Evercore, Hong Kong, advising on a broad range of M&A deals across Asia. Chris also worked as a senior associate at PwC Hong Kong in the valuations advisory department, covering various sectors. Chris holds a Bachelor of Arts degree with honors in Classics from Oxford University and is an ICAEW (Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales) registered chartered account-ant. At Apricum, Chris is a member of the London-based transaction advisory team where he leads M&A and capital raise transactions in both Solar PV and BESS across Europe.

Mikko Preuß, VP of Strategy & Commercial at terralayr, brings over 11 years of extensive experience across the energy sector. His career spans roles at Siemens Gamesa, where he worked in OEM operations, strategy consulting at BCG with a focus on energy projects, and venture capital at Picus Capital. Now at terralayr, Mikko leads client engagement and strategic initiatives, leveraging a unique perspective shaped by his experience across corporates, startups, and investment firms.

I started my journey at DKB AG as a Trainee with focus on project finance within the renewable energy industry in 2020. At the beginning of the year 2022 the demand for bank solutions for battery storage projects started to grow. Subsequently this topic gained my interest because storage projects where more complex and we had to thing about new solutions. Currently I am responsible for acquiring and structuring new projects and have successfully worked on several battery projects.

During my studies, I had already embarked on the path towards renewable energies in combination with battery system solutions. Starting in the energy consultancy, I moved to the trading department and the virtual power plant of EnBW AG. Since then I have been working as a product manager in flexibility marketing and have been actively driving forward the large-scale battery storage segment within EnBW AG with a strong focus on a further growth of this business.

Martin Daronnat is currently Head of Flexibility & Structured Origination Germany at Engie Global Energy Management et Sales (GEMS). Active since more than 10 years in the energy business, Martin has a strong background in Flexibility and Renewables structuring and origination. His team currently offers flexibility offtake agreements and structured products to allow asset owners to make their assets bankable with the desired level of risks exposure. They closed (the first ever in continental Europe) long term fixed price flexibility purchase agreement in 2024 in Germany, allowing a large scale BESS to be financed. More of these deals are expected to be signed in 2025. ENGIE as a whole is a worldwide leader in BESS; with an objective to build 10GW by 2030, and currently having 5GW operational or in construction.