BESS in Germany: the opportunity and the talent gap behind it

Germany’s battery energy storage market has moved beyond the question of whether it will scale.

The more useful questions now are: how quickly can projects actually be connected, built and operated? And does the market have enough experienced people to deliver them?

The numbers explain why.

In 2024, German network operators received 9,710 connection applications for battery storage projects at medium-voltage level and above. Together, those applications represented around 400GW of planned power capacity and 661GWh of storage capacity.

Compare that with what is actually operating. The Bundesnetzagentur reported 921 battery storage facilities connected at medium voltage and above, totalling approximately 2.3GW and 3.2GWh.

Around 3,800 applications from 2024 and previous years had been approved, representing approximately 25GW and 46GWh.

There is an enormous difference between the size of Germany’s BESS pipeline and the capacity currently operating.

And that difference is where the opportunity - and the talent challenge - sits.

Germany does not have a shortage of BESS ambition

At transmission level alone, Germany’s four TSOs had received around 650 connection requests for large-scale battery projects totalling 226GW by the end of 2024. Distribution network operators have also been dealing with significant volumes of applications.

Clearly, not all of those projects will be built.

Connection queues contain competing projects, speculative applications and developments at very different levels of maturity. Treating hundreds of gigawatts of applications as a construction forecast would give a misleading picture of the market.

But the direction is difficult to ignore.

Developers, utilities, infrastructure investors and independent power producers are competing for viable sites and grid capacity because storage is becoming increasingly important to the German electricity system.

Germany already had 206.5GW of renewable generation capacity registered as of 26 June 2026. As more variable renewable generation enters the system, the ability to move electricity across time becomes increasingly valuable.

Germany’s grid challenges add another dimension. The Bundesnetzagentur says 7.4GW of grid reserve capacity will be required for winter 2026/27, rising to around 8.3GW for 2028/29. The regulator points to increasing transmission requirements as renewable generation expands and stresses that further grid development remains essential.

BESS is not a replacement for that grid investment. But flexible storage is becoming part of a much wider answer to how Germany manages an increasingly renewable electricity system.

The difficult bit starts after the investment case

A compelling market does not automatically create straightforward projects.

Grid connection is perhaps the clearest example.

Battery storage occupies an unusual position because it is both a consumer and supplier of electricity. The Bundesnetzagentur confirms that projects require network capacity for both charging and discharging, potentially through separate capacity allocation processes. A physical connection alone does not automatically mean that the requested capacity has been allocated.

At the same time, the regulatory environment continues to develop.

The Bundesnetzagentur is working on its MiSpeL framework for the market integration of storage and charging points, with its latest working documents published in August 2026. The regulator has described the changes as a way to enable storage to participate more actively in electricity markets while supporting the integration of growing renewable generation.

Network charging is changing too. Current Bundesnetzagentur proposals would see storage operators contributing to network financing through a moderate annual capacity charge, reflecting storage’s particular role as a provider of flexibility.

For businesses developing BESS projects, this creates a market where commercial, technical and regulatory decisions increasingly overlap.

That has consequences for hiring.

The talent gap is becoming a delivery issue

A 100MW battery project does not appear simply because capital has been committed.

Someone has to secure the site. Someone has to understand the connection strategy and negotiate with the relevant network operator. Someone needs to manage permitting, procurement and contracts. Engineers need to understand the interaction between batteries, inverters, transformers, substations and the wider network. Commercial teams need to understand how the asset will make money once operational.

Then somebody has to bring all those pieces together.

This is where the German BESS talent market becomes particularly interesting.

The strongest candidates are not necessarily people with "battery storage" written across ten years of their CV. That talent pool is still relatively young.

Many of the skills BESS businesses need have been developed elsewhere.

Grid specialists may come from utilities, TSOs, DSOs or conventional generation. Project developers may have spent years delivering solar PV or onshore wind. Electrical engineers may come from substations and transmission infrastructure. Commercial specialists may have backgrounds in power trading, optimisation or energy markets.

The hiring question therefore changes from:

"Who has already done this exact BESS job?"

to:

"Who understands the problem we need them to solve?"

That distinction matters.

The people everyone wants are often the hardest to find

As the market grows, several profiles are becoming particularly important.

Experienced grid connection professionals sit close to the top of that list. When connection capacity can determine whether a project progresses at all, people who understand network studies, connection processes and the realities of working with German network operators become strategically important.

Strong project development and project management professionals are equally valuable. Moving a battery project from an attractive site on a map to an investable, permitted and buildable asset requires people who can manage multiple parties without losing sight of programme, cost or risk.

Then there is the technical layer: electrical engineering, high-voltage expertise, EPC management, commissioning and asset management.

Finally, businesses need people who understand the commercial side of storage. BESS revenues can involve several markets and operating strategies. That means commercial and optimisation talent needs to understand not only what an asset can technically do, but when doing it makes financial sense.

These candidates are rarely sitting around waiting for an advert.

They are often already working on important projects elsewhere.

For hiring managers, that changes the nature of recruitment. Knowing the job title is not enough. You need to know where adjacent talent sits, which skills genuinely transfer and what will persuade an established professional to move.

Expert Thoughts

Garry Rogerson, Director of Permanent Recruitment at Hunter Philips, believes the scale of Germany’s BESS opportunity is creating a talent challenge well before many projects reach construction.

"The interesting thing about Germany is that the project pipeline is growing much faster than the pool of people who have actually delivered BESS projects. Everyone wants proven battery storage experience, particularly across grid connection, project development and electrical engineering, but there simply aren't enough people with five or ten years of pure BESS experience because the market hasn't existed at this scale for that long. Employers need to be realistic about where the talent is going to come from. Some of the strongest hires will be people moving across from solar, wind, utilities, grid infrastructure and conventional power who already understand the difficult parts of getting energy projects developed and connected. The businesses that recognise those transferable skills early will have a much bigger talent pool to work with. If every developer waits for somebody who has already delivered the exact same battery project in Germany, they're all going to be competing for the same small group of people. With the level of BESS activity we're seeing, that competition is only going to become more intense."

The next bottleneck may be people, not projects

Germany has no shortage of organisations interested in battery storage.

What it has is a rapidly developing market competing for a relatively finite pool of people who understand electricity networks, project development, engineering, construction and energy markets.

The 400GW represented by 2024’s connection applications should not be read as 400GW of inevitable projects.

It should, however, tell hiring managers something important.

Competition is building long before every project reaches construction.

Businesses that wait until financial close or notice to proceed before thinking seriously about talent may find themselves approaching the same small group of candidates as everyone else.

The better approach is to map talent against the project pipeline early. Identify which positions are genuinely BESS-specific, which can be filled through adjacent sectors and which individuals are likely to become difficult to secure as development activity increases.

At Hunter Philips, this is where our view of the renewable energy talent market becomes useful. We work across storage and the wider power sector internationally, which gives us visibility of both established BESS professionals and people with relevant experience in neighbouring markets.

Germany’s battery storage opportunity is substantial.

Turning that opportunity into operating assets will depend on grid capacity, regulation, capital and technology.

It will also depend on having the right people in the room.

And those people are becoming an increasingly valuable part of the equation.