Investor Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners (CIP) has partnered with GCSS, a joint platform of developers Ikigai Energy and Agnoli Giuggioli, to deploy 2.3GW of BESS in Italy.
CIP has partnered with GC Storage Services (GCSS) to deploy the pipeline of 14 battery energy storage system (BESS) projects across northern and southern Italy. The first are expected to reach ready-to-build (RTB) stage in 2025.
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CIP said the business case of large-scale BESS in Italy is facilitated by long-term contracted revenues under the capacity market (CM), mainly in the north, and the MACSE auctions, mainly in the south. The first auctions of MACSE, the full name of which is Meccanismo di Approvvigionamento di Capacità di Stoccaggio Elettrico, are expected to be held in Q3 2025. Consultancy Timera Energy discussed MACSE and the CM in detail in a recent interview (Premium access).
Roberto Castiglioni, CEO of GCSS, commented on the announcement: “Together with Agnoli Giuggioli (AG), we created GCSS with the objective of developing one of Italy’s largest and most bankable battery storage platforms. Leveraging our UK expertise and AG’s deep local regulatory knowledge, we are building a portfolio of strategically distributed sites across key Italian zones.”
Castiglioni has been a regular interviewee and commentator for Energy-Storage.news and speaker at our publisher Solar Media’s events, going as far back as 2018.
Nischal Agarwal, Partner at CIP, added: “Italy has a clear need for storage and the enabling market and regulatory mechanisms are being put in place to make battery storage projects commercially attractive.”
CIP is investing in the partnership via its Flagship Fund CI V for greenfield renewable energy projects, and its €12 billion fundraise earlier this month was covered by our colleagues at PV Tech. The firm is building large-scale BESS projects in the UK, US, Chile, and Australia. Executives from the firm discussed a trio of 500MW/1GWh projects in Scotland in a recent interview (Premium access).
