CEE Battery Brief #2: EU backs a Wrocław LFP line, German storage surges, Sonnen insolvent

EU grant decisions put Polish cell manufacturing back in focus this week, while new deployment figures showed storage growth accelerating in Germany and worldwide. At the same time, a large recall and an insolvency were reminders that the industry's growth is not risk-free.

Cells: EU grants back an LFP line in Wrocław

The European Commission has selected 77 projects for €3.4 billion of Innovation Fund support, including 12 clean-tech manufacturing projects seeking almost €895 million.¹ Among them is ArisEU, a 9 GWh-a-year LFP cell line for electric vehicles at LG Energy Solution Wroclaw, alongside PowerCo's planned LFP plant of up to 27 GWh a year in Sagunto, Spain.² A Bosch project on heat-pump-based battery thermal management in Hungary and Romania was also chosen.²

Grant amounts are still to be negotiated with the EU agency CINEA, with results expected in the first quarter of 2027.¹ The selection suggests that LFP, so far dominated by Asian supply, is becoming part of Europe's production plans, with Poland as one of the sites.

What to watch: the next Innovation Fund round planned for early December, which is due to include a €1 billion clean-tech manufacturing topic.¹

Storage: a first standalone battery for R.Power in Poland

R.Power has energised its first standalone battery in Poland, the 5 MW / 10 MWh Herby project.³ It holds a long-term contract from the December 2024 capacity auction and a supplementary contract from September 2026, and trading is handled by optimiser Entrix; the company lists a wider battery pipeline of 1.6 GW / 5.8 GWh.⁴

Further south, Faria Renewables inaugurated its 49.9 MW / 134.16 MWh Galani system in Elassona, Greece.⁵

Deployment: Germany nearly doubles

Germany added about 8.2 GWh of battery storage in the first nine months of 2026, up 91% year on year. Utility-scale systems accounted for around 3.8 GWh, roughly 350% more than a year earlier, and the solar association BSW-Solar expects the full year to pass 10 GWh. It is calling for 15 reforms, including a right to fair and flexible grid connection agreements.⁶

Globally, BloombergNEF expects a 45% year-on-year jump in deployments in 2026 and 3.1 TW of cumulative capacity by 2036.⁷ For CEE developers, Germany's grid-connection debate is a useful preview of the bottlenecks that may follow larger pipelines.

Raw materials and suppliers

Benchmark Mineral Intelligence expects lithium demand from stationary storage to grow by around 5% a year to 2030, after more than 60% a year over the past two years.⁸ Cobalt was the notable mover in IMF data, with the September average down 24.4% month on month.⁹

CATL's third-quarter net profit rose 14.54% year on year to 21.25 billion yuan, well behind revenue growth of 58.58%,¹⁰ and its Hong Kong shares then fell by more than 10%.¹¹

EV and industry risk

Volkswagen is recalling nearly 72,700 EVs worldwide, about 10,000 of them in Germany, over possible production defects in high-voltage cells; an over-the-air update will cap charging at 80% in the meantime.¹² German home-storage maker Sonnen has filed for insolvency months after Shell sold it to the family office Tiven, and says it will keep serving its more than 150,000 customers.¹³

Dates for your diary

• 2–3 Nov · Li-ion Battery Europe, Barcelona
• 4–5 Nov · Hungarian Battery Days, Debrecen
• 4–5 Nov · International Battery Production Conference, Braunschweig
• 11–12 Nov · Battery Innovation Days, Stockholm
• All upcoming events →

Sources

1. Commission invests €3.4 billion in net-zero technology projects – European Commission, 19 Oct 2026 ↩↩↩

2. EU Innovation Fund selects LFP cell factories in Spain, Poland – ESS News, 22 Oct 2026 ↩↩

3. R.Power brings first standalone battery storage project online in Poland – BEST Magazine, 20 Oct 2026 ↩

4. R.Power's first standalone energy storage project in Poland enters operations – Energy Global, 22 Oct 2026 ↩

5. Faria Renewables inaugurates 134MWh, Huawei-supplied Greece BESS – Energy-Storage.news, 22 Oct 2026 ↩

6. Germany's battery storage additions surge to 8.2 GWh in first nine months of 2026 – ESS News, 22 Oct 2026 ↩

7. Global energy storage deployments will see 45% year-on-year 'growth surge' in 2026: BloombergNEF – Energy-Storage.news, 22 Oct 2026 ↩

8. Lithium demand from storage expected to slow to 5% annual growth – ESS News, 22 Oct 2026 ↩

9. IMF Primary Commodity Prices – battery metals – CellsDesk / IMF, Sep 2026 average ↩

10. CATL Q3 net profit reaches $3.16 billion, with growth trailing revenue – CnEVPost, 20 Oct 2026 ↩

11. CATL shares fall over 10% in Hong Kong as tax changes add to profit pressure – CnEVPost, 21 Oct 2026 ↩

12. VW's battery recall affects 72,700 EVs – including 10,000 in Germany – electrive, 21 Oct 2026 ↩

13. Sonnen files for insolvency – ESS News, 22 Oct 2026 ↩