As Germany emerges from the recent energy price crisis, renewables and battery storage are being deployed in the market at an unprecedented pace, a trend expected to continue in the years ahead. This presents an enormous opportunity but also brings forth new challenges and tensions. These range from ensuring grid access to establishing the right incentives for renewables and batteries to operate in a system-friendly manner. Meanwhile, the rapid drop in carbon and gas prices has created a challenging environment for financing, contrasting with previous years of abundance.

The Aurora Renewables & Battery Summit Berlin 2024 brought together the biggest utilities, policy makers, project developers, investors, and other main players from across the clean energy space in Germany to discuss the status quo and the future of renewables and battery storage.

Regarding renewables, we discussed the future of the market premium support scheme, the possible promotion of the Power Purchase Agreement (PPA) market through state guarantees, the rising challenges of integrating renewables into the market, and the impacts of negative prices on financing.

On the battery front, the recently published German storage strategy (Speicherstrategie) has raised expectations regarding swift regulatory improvements for battery projects. Even before it was published, Germany has already experienced an unprecedented boom in battery buildout that shows no signs of slowing down. The event aimed to analyse and discuss business cases for batteries, both as standalone entities and when co-located, as well as the regulatory changes that could help unlock their full potential.

Crucial insights were heard from our Aurora experts and distinguished speakers including, Dr. Phillipp Nimmermann, State Secretary to the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Action; Katja Wünschel, CEO, RWE Renewables Europe & Australia; Philipp Heilmaier, Head of Division, Future of Energy Supply, dena; Anna von Bremen, Partner and Head of Energy Innovation, Osborne Clarke; and more.

It was an insightful afternoon of debates and discussions as well as networking opportunities during the event, including a drinks reception in the evening.