Financing BESS: What Banks Accept — and Where Deals Break

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Recording from Tuesday, March 31, 2026 | Battery Business & Development Forum | Language: English | Duration: 66:07 .

Debt for battery storage is available, but conditions are changing as merchant exposure increases and revenue structures become more complex. This session brings together banks, developers, offtakers and investors to discuss what is currently financeable, how contracts are structured in practice, and where expectations diverge.

What you will discuss:

  • How much merchant exposure banks are currently willing to accept

  • What makes a tolling agreement truly bankable in practice

  • Where expectations between banks, offtakers and developers typically diverge

  • How financing structures change when revenue uncertainty increases

  • Whether refinancing and new structures can unlock projects without long-term contracts

  • At what point a project becomes too risky even for equity

Moderator

Ann Cocquyt
Director - PPA & BESS Transactions
Pexapark

Speaker

Marcus Starke
Director Energy Origination
NORD/LB

Ruben Valiente
Managing Director
MAXXEN ENERGY AG

Alexander Drousiotis
Vice President Structured Finance Energy
Santander Corporate & Investment Banking

Mikko Preuss
Chief Commercial Officer
terralayrGrace Kankindi

Grace Kankindi
Deputy Head of Investment Management
Aquila Clean Energy

Coen Hutters
Energy Transition Specialist
Rabobank

Nils van Afferden
Asset Originator Flexibilities and Batteries
RWE
Supply & Trading GmbH

Maxime Nekoian
Finance Director
Gresham House

Mark van Zon
Senior Director
ABN AMRO

Further Content
The smarter E South America Conferences 2026
Supply Chains and Industrial Development: Brazil's Place in the Global Energy Storage Value Chain

Thursday, August 27, 2026, 02:00 pm

The smarter E South America Conferences 2026 | Conference Program

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The expansion of energy storage creates significant opportunities for industrial development, innovation, and Brazil's integration into global value chains. This session will discuss the country's role in the energy storage supply chain, including strategic minerals, components, assembly, manufacturing, industrial policies, and incentive mechanisms. The panel will address how Brazil can combine competitiveness, supply security, technological development, and investment attractiveness to build an industrial base connected to the growth of the BESS market.

The smarter E South America Conferences 2026
Safety, Reliability, and Longevity: The Future of Storage-System Operation

Thursday, August 27, 2026, 04:00 pm

The smarter E South America Conferences 2026 | Conference Program

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The safe and reliable operation of energy storage systems is essential for the sustainable expansion of the market. This session will discuss engineering best practices, technical standards, project safety, risk management, operational performance, and battery system lifespan. The panel will address the requirements for ensuring reliability, quality, failure prevention, and the safe integration of BESS across different applications, offering a technical perspective on the standards that should guide the future of storage-system operation in Brazil.

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Discover how Germany's solar surge is driving a gigawatt-scale battery boom, the revenue models making projects viable, and the hurdles ahead.

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The Future Role of Flexibility Support Schemes and Their Impact on the Storage Industry in Europe

Tuesday, June 13, 2023, 02:30 pm - 04:00 pm

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The pressing need to mitigate the impact of climate change and to deal with the ongoing energy crisis requires a new regulatory framework in Europe. This is why the European Commission has presented a legislative proposal for the adaptation of the EU Electricity Market Design in Q1 2023. But how would this new framework impact the energy storage market? How would the provision of flexibility be encouraged? How would existing entry barriers for energy storage be further reduced? In this panel, representatives from the EU, utilities, IPPs and storage providers will be discussing whether the new market design is suitable for incentivizing both the necessary energy storage installations and ideas for future improvements.

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The Challenge in Turning Europe’s PV Research into an Industrial Reality

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Europe leads in solar research but lags in manufacturing. Jonathan Gifford explores industrial policy and tandem tech with experts.

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