Kyon Energy has sold Obton a portfolio of four German battery projects totalling 194.7 MW. Measured in megawatts it is one of the larger German battery sales of 2023. Measured in megawatt hours, the picture changes, because the biggest project in the portfolio stores far less energy than its power rating suggests.
Key takeaways
- Kyon Energy announced on 4 December 2023 that it had sold a 194.7 MW portfolio of four battery storage projects in Germany to Obton, with the deal value undisclosed.
- The largest asset in the Kyon Energy to Obton portfolio is the Alfeld battery project in Lower Saxony, recorded in Leap at 137.5 MW of power and 75 MWh of storage.
- The other named projects are Karstadt in Brandenburg at 20.7 MW and 41.4 MWh, and Tangermunde in Saxony-Anhalt at 15.8 MW and 35 MWh, plus a fourth 20.7 MW project due for delivery by the end of 2023.
- The sale is part of a framework agreement Kyon Energy and Obton concluded at the end of 2022, under which a third of the commitment was fulfilled within the first year.
- Enerdatics records 11 battery M&A transactions in Germany in 2023 and 2024, of which two project acquisitions carry a disclosed price, at $0.92 million and $1.08 million per MW.
Why does the megawatt figure overstate this portfolio?
Because a battery has two sizes, and the headline uses only one. Power capacity, in MW, is how fast a battery can charge or discharge. Energy capacity, in MWh, is how much it can store. Divide the second by the first and you get the duration: how long the battery can run at full power before it is empty.
On Leap's figures, Alfeld's 75 MWh behind 137.5 MW gives a duration of about 0.55 hours, or roughly 33 minutes. Karstadt runs for 2 hours and Tangermunde for about 2.2 hours. Taken together, the three named projects hold 151.4 MWh behind 174 MW, an average of under 0.9 hours. The record does not give an energy figure for the fourth project.
So most of the portfolio's megawatts sit in one short-duration asset. A buyer comparing this deal to others on a per-MW basis would be comparing unlike things, because a 33-minute battery and a two-hour battery earn money in different ways.
What can a battery this short actually do?
It can respond fast and briefly. Short-duration batteries are suited to grid services that pay for speed rather than stamina, such as frequency containment, where a battery injects or absorbs power within seconds to keep the grid stable. Those services reward the ability to deliver power instantly for a short period.
Longer batteries earn more from shifting energy across the day, charging when power is cheap and discharging when it is expensive. That trade needs hours of storage, not minutes. Karstadt and Tangermunde, at around two hours, are built for it. Alfeld, on the figures recorded, is not.
The mix gives Obton two kinds of exposure in one portfolio. It also means the value of the largest asset depends heavily on how much Germany's markets for fast grid services are willing to pay.
Why sell through a framework agreement?
Because it gives a developer a committed buyer before its projects are built. The framework agreement, concluded at the end of 2022, set out a programme of sales from Kyon Energy to Obton rather than a single transaction. Within its first year a third of the commitment was fulfilled, including sales of projects in Tangermunde and Karstadt.
The division of labour is clear in the record. Kyon Energy handles planning: site development, grid connection planning, building rights and layout design. Obton contributes to financing and runs the completed batteries. Leap records the partnership as a three-digit million investment in German storage capacity. All four projects were expected to start construction in 2024.
For a developer, a framework agreement turns a pipeline into a forward sale. For the buyer, it secures a flow of late-stage projects in a market where grid connections are hard to win. In German battery development the scarce input is often the connection itself, a point Enerdatics examined in Zenobe's purchase of sdp energie.
Enerdatics records 11 battery M&A transactions in Germany across 2023 and 2024. Three carry a disclosed value, and one of those is a corporate deal, Return's majority stake in developer J&P Batterie Projekte for $55.6 million, which cannot be compared per MW. The two priced project deals are both two-hour or longer assets. Voltwise paid $51.52 million for a 56 MW, 112 MWh project, or $0.92 million per MW and $0.46 million per MWh. MEAG agreed to pay $100.11 million for SMA's ready-to-build 92.5 MW, 231 MWh Metelen battery, or $1.08 million per MW and $0.43 million per MWh. The Kyon Energy to Obton price is not disclosed, but those two deals show why a short battery would not be priced like a long one per MW: buyers paying for energy pay by the megawatt hour.
What does the deal signal for German battery storage?
It signals that the German market was moving from one-off project sales to programmatic ones, and that the developers behind those programmes were themselves becoming targets. Seven weeks after the Obton announcement, on 23 January 2024, TotalEnergies agreed to buy Kyon Energy for an upfront payment of $98 million plus further payments tied to development targets.
The TotalEnergies record describes the business it was buying. Kyon Energy, launched in 2021, had developed about 770 MW of projects since inception: 120 MW operational, 350 MW under construction and 300 MW ready to build, with a further 2 GW of advanced-stage pipeline. A forward sales agreement with an investor such as Obton is part of what gives a developer pipeline like that a value an acquirer can underwrite.
Kyon Energy kept selling projects after the TotalEnergies deal was signed. In February 2024 Leap records it selling the 50 MW Weibenthurm-Kettig battery project to Verbund. The pattern is a developer recycling projects to investors while its owner changes above it.
It also shows the limits of headline megawatts as a guide to scale. German battery deals in this period range from roughly half-hour assets to two and a half hours. Until disclosures report both MW and MWh as standard, any per-MW comparison across German batteries should be read alongside duration.
Frequently asked questions
What did Obton buy from Kyon Energy?Obton bought a 194.7 MW portfolio of four battery storage projects in Germany: Alfeld, Karstadt, Tangermunde and a fourth 20.7 MW project. The deal value was not disclosed, and construction of all four was expected to start in 2024.
How long can the Alfeld battery run at full power?Leap records Alfeld at 137.5 MW and 75 MWh, which gives a duration of about 0.55 hours, or roughly 33 minutes, at full output.
Who agreed to buy Kyon Energy after the Obton sale?TotalEnergies agreed on 23 January 2024 to acquire Kyon Energy for an upfront payment of $98 million plus further payments linked to development targets.
Ready to get deal-ready answers in seconds? Try Enerdatics Leap AI and access verified intelligence across M&A, financings, PPAs, projects, and energy market developments through natural language.
.jpeg)
