Green co-location: Boosting PV project revenues

Adding a battery energy storage system to a PV plant significantly increases project revenues and unlocks new commercial opportunities.

With storage directly on-site, renewable generation can be shifted to higher-price periods, market premiums can be preserved during negative price hours, and additional secured revenue products become accessible – even if the battery cannot charge from the grid.

Unlocking value with green co-location under grid constraints

Challenges

  • Negative prices: Rising negative price hours reduce revenues of renewables and trigger curtailment
  • Generation vs. consumption mismatch: Peak production during low-demand periods (e.g., midday) causes energy waste and inefficient use
  • Deterioration of PV business cases: Market capture rates reached all time lows, making solar increasingly difficult to finance
  • Grid connection as the bottleneck: With more than 700 GW in the interconnection queue, most batteries that require a grid import connection won't get connected for a long time


Opportunities

  • Improved profitability by load shifting: Battery storage absorbs RE production surplus during negative price hours, improving profitability by selling energy at higher prices
  • Maximized grid usage & cost efficiency: Co-locating PV and battery storage maximizes the use of existing grid connections, reducing the need for additional infrastructure and lowering CAPEX via shared resources
  • Enable further revenue streams: Co-located systems enable participation in ancillary services, creating additional income
  • Grid friendliness: Especially in summer months, a green battery storage system flattens the renewable production peaks at noon time and shifts production towards lower load periods

Revenue streams enabled through green co-location

Load shifting & virtual cycling

Electricity generated during low or negative price periods is stored in the battery and discharged when market prices are highest, therefore maximizing revenue. Virtual cycling refers to entering and closing buy positions before delivery begins, generating additional trading revenue without physically cycling the battery.

Secure subsidies & prevent curtailment

EEG subsidies can still be captured during negative price periods. During these periods or redispatch events, the battery storage charges with PV energy, avoiding curtailment and shifting revenues into more profitable, non-negative market windows. When a redispatch signal is sent, revenues can be generated twice — through charging reimbursement at the redispatch price and later discharging at full market price.

Ancillary services

Beyond wholesale optimization through load shifting, green co-location enables participation in ancillary services (aFRR+) and increases revenue diversity.

Our value delivery: From optimization to market execution

We take care of the whole value chain and optimization of both battery storage & PV.

  • One optimization: We jointly optimize, trade, and dispatch PV and battery assets as one integrated system.
  • Market access: We enable direct access to the market via EPEX Spot.
  • Flex upside: Through our multi-market approach, frequent re-optimizations, and virtual cycling, we create significant flexibility upside.
  • Balancing group: PV and battery operate within the Entrix balancing group. We take care of coordination Day-Ahead and Intraday nominations with the TSO.


Effortless upgrade from green to grey co-location

We support our partners in responding quickly to regulatory developments and transitioning projects seamlessly from green to grey co-location once grid connections are in place.

This enables battery energy storage systems to additionally charge from the grid, unlock the full range of revenue streams, and remain compliant within the evolving EEG and MiSpeL regulatory frameworks.