Why the Company That Makes the Batteries Just Bought the Projects

Sungrow sells battery hardware. It has just bought the companies that will buy battery hardware. Two project companies in Italy, holding 177 MW and 708 MWh between them, acquired from the developer that took them through permitting. The capacity is not the interesting part.

Key takeaways

• Sungrow, through Sungrow Renewable Italy, has acquired a 177 MW/708 MWh battery storage portfolio in Italy from Greenfield Group by purchasing two project companies rather than the assets themselves. Terms were not disclosed.
• The two utility-scale projects are located in Veneto and Lombardy in northern Italy, are at late-stage development, and carry a combined four-hour storage duration.
• Enerdatics understands, through its own transaction intelligence rather than confirmation by the parties, that the Veneto asset is likely the 78 MW/348.8 MWh Cordignano BESS in the Municipality of Cordignano, Treviso, held through Cordignano 78 S.r.l. The identification rests on matching regional location and Single Authorisation status, and on the project company sharing its registered office with Greenfield Italia S.r.l.
• On that identification, the Cordignano project secured its Single Authorisation in July 2026, valid for 25 years from the date the facility enters operation, covers roughly 1.2 hectares, comprises 78 battery containers across 13 transformer containers, and connects to Terna's Cordignano 380/132 kV substation through a 132 kV link including about 95 metres of underground high voltage cable.
• Enerdatics records 30 Italian battery transactions since the start of 2024. Thirteen of them state a storage duration, and nine of those thirteen are four-hour configurations.

Why would a battery manufacturer buy battery projects?

Because the equipment margin and the project margin are separate pots, and only one recurs. A manufacturer selling a battery system books revenue once, at a price set by a tender it does not control. An owner of a permitted Italian storage project holds a grid connection, a 25-year authorisation and revenue for the life of the asset. Buying the project puts Sungrow on the side of the transaction that keeps earning after the containers are installed, and it means the hardware specification is decided inside the same group rather than bid out.

It also changes what Sungrow is competing for. There is no shortage of Italian battery capacity on paper: several of the 30 recorded transactions are above a gigawatt, including ContourGlobal's 1.59 GW purchase from Altea Green Power and Galileo Energy. What is scarce is capacity that has cleared permitting. Both of these projects have.

What does buying two companies rather than two assets actually change?

It keeps the paperwork intact. A Single Authorisation, or Autorizzazione Unica, is the consolidated Italian permit bundling the consents needed to build and operate an energy facility into one instrument, and it attaches to the company that holds it. Buy the shares and the authorisation, the grid connection terms, the land rights and the permitting history transfer unamended. Buy the assets and several of those consents need reissuing in a new name, which in Italy means time measured in quarters.

The authorisation clock is the detail most readers would misread. Cordignano's Single Authorisation was granted in July 2026 and runs for 25 years, but those 25 years start from the date the facility enters operation, not from the date of grant. Nothing has been consumed by the time spent in development, and nothing will be consumed by construction. For a buyer that has to build before it earns, a permit whose term has not yet begun is worth materially more than one of the same nominal length that started counting two years ago.

Why is 708 MWh on 177 MW the number Italy keeps picking?

Because four hours has become the Italian default, and this portfolio sits exactly on it. Of the 13 Italian battery transactions Enerdatics records with a stated duration since the start of 2024, nine are four-hour: this one among them, alongside Encavis at Ceprano, OX2's purchase from Hanwha, Sonnedix's portfolio from Sphera Energy and Bison Energy's portfolio from ATLAS RE and Heron Advisors. The exceptions run longer rather than shorter: ZE Energy's Elena project at five hours, RIC Energy's 200 MW/1,600 MWh project at eight, and Sessa Aurunca at just over nine, a project that ZE Energy counts in grid connection capacity rather than megawatt hours.

Pricing is a thinner story. Five of the 30 carry a disclosed value in the structured deal value field. Airengy and B7 Energy paid about $17.64 million for a 509 MW project in November 2025, or $0.03 million per MW. ZE Energy paid $11.74 million for the 98.5 MW Sessa Aurunca project in October 2025, or $0.12 million per MW. Renewable Power Capital paid $74 million for nine projects totalling 1,100 MW from Altea Green Power in March 2024, or $0.07 million per MW. N2OFF paid $2.42 million for a 70 percent stake in a 196 MW portfolio, which grosses up to about $3.46 million for the whole and $0.02 million per MW, a figure four times lower if the stake is not grossed up first. Sosteneo's $1.33 billion for 49 percent of Enel Libra Flexsys is a corporate transaction over in-construction capacity and does not belong in the same comparison.

Enerdatics records 30 Italian battery transactions since the start of 2024, of which five carry a disclosed value and only four of those are asset purchases. The four asset prints run from $0.02 million to $0.12 million per MW, a six-fold spread across deals announced within 20 months of each other, which is what a market looks like when what is being bought is permits rather than plant. Lombardy in particular has become a reference point, with early-stage land there trading at close to the Italian median.

What does the deal signal for Italian storage?

It signals that the supply chain is moving down into ownership, and that Italy is where it is comfortable doing so. A manufacturer taking equity in permitted projects is making a judgement that the returns on Italian storage are good enough to hold rather than just good enough to supply. That judgement is easier where the configuration has standardised, because a four-hour asset built to a known shape is easier to underwrite.

The second read is about who the sellers now are. Greenfield developed both projects and sold both companies before construction, which is the pure development model: take the permitting risk, exit at authorisation, recycle. Buyers, meanwhile, are increasingly industrial groups and utilities with a reason to own the asset beyond its cash flow rather than funds seeking contracted yield. When the counterparty list shifts that way, price stops being set purely by cost of capital, which is one reason four priced deals sit six-fold apart.

Frequently asked questions

What is a Single Authorisation in Italy?A Single Authorisation, or Autorizzazione Unica, is the consolidated Italian permit that combines the consents needed to build and operate an energy facility into one instrument. Cordignano's was secured in July 2026 and runs for 25 years from the date the facility enters operation, not from the date of grant.

Why buy a project company instead of the project?Because the permits, grid connection terms and land rights sit inside the company. Transferring the shares moves all of them unamended, while an asset purchase would require several consents to be reissued in a new name.

How much did Sungrow pay for the Italian portfolio?Terms were not disclosed. Only five of the 30 Italian battery transactions Enerdatics records since the start of 2024 carry a disclosed value, and the four asset-level prints among them range from $0.02 million to $0.12 million per MW.

Enerdatics tracks every European battery transaction with the duration, permit status and corporate structure behind it, which is how a share purchase and an asset purchase stop looking alike. Browse more transaction analysis in the Enerdatics insights archive.