Two energy storage sites can hold identical hardware and end up worth very different amounts. Same battery cells, same inverters, same engineering. The difference lies in things that never appear in a photograph: where the site sits relative to the network, what capacity was reserved and when, which consents were secured before the queue filled, and whether the commercial arrangements were put in place early enough to matter.
That sequence is the core of battery storage development, and it is how we approach Project Baloiço, the 30MW / 120MWh stand alone battery storage asset in the Solar45 platform.
An asset is not one decision. It is a sequence of them, and the order decides what the asset becomes.
Why grid position is the scarce input
Across much of Europe, the binding constraint on new energy projects is no longer the cost of equipment or the availability of land. It is the network. More than 1,700 GW of renewable and hybrid projects sit in connection queues across sixteen European countries, and at many substations the spare capacity is already spoken for.
A project that holds a connection, or sits where capacity can realistically be obtained, holds something that cannot be manufactured. That is why position is assessed before almost anything else. In Portugal, the new recurring auctions add a more predictable route to that capacity, as set out in what Portugal’s energy storage strategy means for Santa Marta and Baloiço.
What storage earns, and why location decides it
Solar produces most heavily in the middle of the day, which is also when the network is least able to absorb it and prices are weakest. A battery charges when power is cheap and plentiful and releases it when demand returns in the evening. It also provides the balancing services grid operators need to keep the system stable. The April 2025 Iberian blackout put a spotlight on how much of that flexibility a renewables heavy grid requires.
The result is an asset that earns across more of the day and from more than one mechanism. How much it earns depends heavily on where it connects, which is why the technical and commercial cases are decided together at the design stage.
Within the Solar45 platform, Baloiço is the dedicated storage asset, while Santa Marta pairs solar generation with storage on one connection. The reasons for designing storage in from the start are covered in why the value in solar development in Portugal sits before the panels go in.
Phased advancement and the gates in between
Development is not a single leap from land to operating asset. It is a series of gates, each one dependent on the last:
- Site control
- Environmental assessment
- Planning consent
- Grid offer
- Connection agreement
- The commercial contracts that turn a permitted project into a financeable one
Each gate cleared reduces uncertainty and changes what the asset is worth to the next buyer in the chain. A phased strategy is built around that reality. Capital is deployed against progress toward defined readiness rather than against a single speculative outcome, and the approach is oriented toward Ready to Build, the point where institutional buyers will underwrite the asset.
Whether any given project reaches that point is never assured, and timelines in this sector slip as a matter of routine. Santa Marta, in development since 2019, shows what that looks like in practice: see what patience looks like in a solar development.
The risks that come with the stage
Development stage infrastructure carries planning risk, grid risk, construction risk and timing risk, and any of them can change an outcome materially. Capital is at risk for the full term. Where an investment is asset backed, that backing relates to the underlying project and does not guarantee the return of capital.
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