Aukera Energy got a financing contract for the remaining part of what is set to become the biggest BESS in Romania. The Gura Ialomiței facility will also have one of the largest capabilities in Central and Eastern Europe.
Brussels-based renewable energy and battery energy storage platform Aukera Energy signed a financing agreement worth EUR 48.5 million euros with the International Finance Corp. (IFC), the investment division of the World Bank, for the second phase of the Gura Ialomiței battery energy storage system (BESS).
The package comprises EUR 40 million of capital expenditure (capex) financing and an EUR 8.5 million tranche for value-added tax. It is for the remaining 100 MW of operating power and 200 MWh in storage capacity, within the firm’s flagship 250 MW / 500 MWh Gura Ialomiței project.
Gura Ialomiței project to be complete by early next year
Phase two is planned to start commercial operation by early 2027, Aukera said. The company, backed by AtlasInvest, Reggeborgh and Belgium’s sovereign wealth fund SFPIM, commissioned the first part last month.
The location is near the Black Sea coast in Gura Ialomiței, in Ialomița county. It is set to become Romania’s largest battery system and one of the biggest ones in Central and Eastern Europe.
Kommunalkredit Austria provided a EUR 60 million debt facility in November for phase one, which also won the biggest grant under the National Recovery and Resilience Plan of Romania (NRRP or PNRR). The EUR 9.9 million contract was signed in 2024.
Investment firm AtlasInvest was founded and is led by Dutch billionaire Marcel van Poecke, non-executive chairman of the Carlyle International Energy Partners (CIEP) division of the American asset management giant Carlyle, Profit.ro wrote.
Aukera was founded in 2021. It develops, finances, builds and operates renewable energy and battery storage infrastructure in the United Kingdom, Germany, Romania, Italy and Belgium. The company has over 810 MW under construction or in operation and a portfolio exceeding 14 GW.
Substantial Romania portfolio underway
Gura Ialomiței is the first project in what will be a substantial Romanian portfolio, Co-founder Cătălin Breabăn said. It is also Aukera’s first operational BESS, completed in one year since reaching the ready-to-build phase.
The principal advisers to the transaction were Clifford Chance Badea (borrower legal counsel), Dentons (lender legal counsel), RINA Consulting (lender technical adviser), PwC (model audit and tax), Aurora Energy Research (market adviser) and Marsh (lender insurance adviser).
