Industry experts at pv magazine Focus – held last week on the sidelines of Intersolar 2026 in Munich, Germany – said quality control, contract design and certification, rather than battery chemistry alone, determine whether battery energy storage system (BESS) projects perform and remain bankable over their operating lifetimes.
From ESS News
Germany and the rest of the European continent were several days into an intensifying heatwave when pv magazine Focus 2026 convened in Munich on June 24. The heat lent a measure of immediacy to a theme running through much of the session’s discussion: how battery systems, and the warranties behind them, hold up once conditions turn extreme.
Factory audits routinely uncover battery quality issues at every stage of production, including at tier-one suppliers, said Garikoitz Sarriegi Etxeberria, head of converter and storage services at German technical consultancy Kiwa PI Berlin, in the opening segment of the event.
Sarriegi Etxeberria argued that the greater risk often lies not in what manufacturers test, but in what they fail to test, citing thermal management systems validated only for cooling performance, with heating performance under cold conditions frequently left unchecked.
