Southeast Europe is developing merchant and state-backed battery-storage projects, with the appropriate financing model depending on market depth and the value storage provides to the power system. Romania’s Scornicesti project illustrates merchant financing, while projects in North Macedonia and Montenegro use state-backed or strategic-partner structures. The region is expected to include both approaches.
The standalone Scornicesti battery in Romania has a capacity of 127 MW / 254 MWh. The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) is providing a non-recourse financing package supported by InvestEU. Its bankability depends on optimisation, market access and risk allocation rather than a long-term fixed-price power contract.
North Macedonia’s state-backed Bitola project has a planned capacity of 100 MW / 400 MWh and is estimated to cost EUR 98 million. Its financing structure is based on sovereign guarantees and concessional finance, with participation from the EBRD, KfW, climate finance and the Western Balkans Investment Framework (WBIF) envisaged. The project’s system value includes balancing, reduced curtailment and improved reliability.
Montenegro’s latest framework envisages a first-phase reference battery of 60 MW / 240 MWh alongside a broader strategic-partner structure. The model could transfer some technology and implementation risk to a strategic investor while preserving utility involvement.
Merchant batteries can offer higher upside and faster private-sector replication, but their leverage depends on downside protection. Contracted or state-backed projects can support longer financing tenors and a lower cost of capital, although they may dilute market incentives. The financing trade-off reflects how risks are allocated as well as the revenue available to projects.
The expected regional mix includes merchant batteries where liquidity and balancing markets are sufficiently deep, and infrastructure-style projects where grid value exceeds revenue that can easily be monetised in markets. The suitable financing model depends on market depth and the value storage provides to the power system.