Chinese renewable energy company Envision Energy and German battery developer ju:niz Energy announced on November 9, 2026 that they will build "Smareg 13," a 442 MWh grid-scale battery project in Vöhringen, Bavaria, Germany. It is the companies' third joint project, and its capacity far exceeds the combined 140.6 MWh of the two projects announced in July. According to an Envision executive, delivery of those first two projects has not yet been completed, yet the companies are already expanding their partnership to a project roughly 3.1 times their combined size. With this announcement, the total capacity of the three joint projects reaches 582.6 MWh, and Smareg 13 alone accounts for 75.9% of it. The key question going forward is how far equipment deliveries and operating track records can keep pace with the rapid growth in announced capacity.
A 442 MWh project announced before delivery of the first two is complete
Smareg 13 will use Envision's "Gen 8" battery system. It offers four hours of discharge and includes grid-forming functionality, which helps stabilize the power grid. The planned site is next to the already operating "Smareg 12" storage facility. ju:niz will handle development, financing, and project execution through to construction, and plans to operate the facility over the long term once it is complete. Envision also highlights a low-noise design, positioning it as a response to sites where noise impact on the surrounding area is a concern.
The partnership began with two battery projects announced in July 2026. "S10" in Baindt, southern Germany, is 88.4 MWh, and "S15" in Schöningen, northern Germany, is 52.2 MWh, for a combined 140.6 MWh. Like Smareg 13, both are planned to use Envision's Gen 8 with four-hour discharge. Smareg 13 is an extension of those earlier projects, but its capacity far exceeds their combined total.
Particularly notable is a comment from Henry Peng, Envision's President for Europe and Latin America. In this announcement, he said the companies are moving forward with a much larger project before delivery of the first two is complete (original: "Moving forward with a significantly larger project before our first two projects have completed delivery"). Peng described the expanded cooperation as evidence that the two companies have built trust as long-term technology partners. However, the announcement does not state when construction of Smareg 13 will begin or when it is scheduled to start operating, and completion dates for the earlier S10 and S15 projects have not been disclosed either. What can be confirmed at this point is the announced capacity of each project and the Envision executive's explanation that delivery of the first two has not been completed.
Three announced projects total 583 MWh, with about 76% in Smareg 13
This announcement significantly expands the scale of the Envision–ju:niz partnership. Adding Smareg 13's 442 MWh to S10's 88.4 MWh and S15's 52.2 MWh from July gives a combined capacity of 582.6 MWh across the three projects. Smareg 13 is about 3.1 times the combined capacity of the first two projects and makes up 75.9% of the total. That share is calculated by dividing 442 MWh by 582.6 MWh and compares only nominal capacities. It does not reflect contract values, contract structures, or actual delivery status.
When comparing battery scale, it is necessary to distinguish between MWh, which indicates the amount of energy a battery can store, and MW, which indicates the amount of power it can deliver at a given moment. If the full nominal capacity is discharged over four hours, dividing the capacity by four gives a rough estimate of output. By this conversion, Smareg 13 is about 110 MW and the first two projects combined are about 35 MW. However, the rated output of each project is not stated in the announcement, so these figures are estimates based on the four-hour discharge assumption and do not represent actual equipment specifications.
Comparison with a Japanese facility makes the scale easier to grasp. According to information released by Sungrow Japan on December 1, 2025, the Tagawa Storage Facility in Fukuoka Prefecture is described as the first facility in Japan to enter actual operation among the projects awarded in the first round of the Long-Term Decarbonization Power Source Auction. Its output is about 29,970 kW and its capacity is about 130,390 kWh, or roughly 130.4 MWh. The combined 140.6 MWh of the two projects Envision and ju:niz announced in July is about the same size as the Tagawa facility, while Smareg 13's 442 MWh is about 3.4 times larger.
In other words, before completing delivery of two projects close in scale to the Tagawa facility, the companies announced a large project more than three times their combined capacity. The growing number of large battery projects likely reflects rising demand for grid-scale batteries in Germany. However, announcing a project, delivering equipment, connecting to the grid, and starting operation are separate stages. Progress in winning and developing large projects is a sign of customer confidence, but whether the facilities are completed as planned and operate stably on the actual power grid must be verified separately.
The expanded partnership shows Envision's ability to win large projects, but it also highlights that the scale of announced projects is growing rapidly before delivery and operating records for the earlier projects have accumulated. Importantly, announced capacity does not directly mean capacity in operation. Going forward, it will be necessary to check the progress of the earlier projects separately from the construction schedule of the new large project.
How to assess the shift to larger projects: operation of the first two is the focus
That said, caution is needed before judging the partnership's expansion as excessive growth without delivery results. There are at least three points to keep in mind.
First, ju:niz does not depend solely on Envision for battery systems. In the July announcement, ju:niz CEO Thomas Stephanblome described Envision as a new supplier joining the company's supplier network. The 75.9% figure calculated here is only Smareg 13's share of the capacity of the three projects jointly announced by Envision and ju:niz, and does not indicate how concentrated ju:niz's overall battery project portfolio is in any one project. In fact, it has not been announced that Envision supplied the equipment for Smareg 12, which operates next to the Smareg 13 site.
Second, 442 MWh is not necessarily an outsized scale for Envision. At the end of June 2026, the company announced it would supply Gen 8 for a battery project that UK developer Elements Green is advancing in Stadorf, Lower Saxony, Germany. That project has an output of 400 MW and a capacity of 1,600 MWh, about 3.6 times the storage capacity of Smareg 13. Envision is also handling even larger projects in the German market, so it would not be appropriate to describe 442 MWh alone as an unusual challenge for the company.
Third, it is worth noting that ju:niz itself, as the customer, has evaluated the collaboration so far positively. COO Vural Oezcan explained that Envision has demonstrated its capability as a technology partner through existing cooperation, and said Smareg 13 is at a "very advanced development status" (original: "very advanced development status"). This suggests that the customer also sees some technical and business merit in moving to the next large project before delivery of the earlier ones is complete. However, the statement concerns development progress and the assessment of Envision, and is not information confirming delivery completion or the start of operation for S10 and S15.
Given these points, the conclusion that can be drawn from this announcement concerns not Envision's business as a whole but only the partnership with ju:niz, where project scale is growing ahead of accumulated delivery results. ju:niz has other suppliers, and Envision has won large projects from other customers. Even so, for this partnership, Peng's comment confirms that the companies moved to a new project about 3.1 times the combined capacity before delivery of the first two was complete.
What will shape this assessment going forward is the progress of the first two projects. If delivery of S10 and S15 is completed and the start of operation is announced, it will confirm that results are beginning to accompany the expanded partnership. Further, if stable operation of the earlier projects is demonstrated before construction of Smareg 13 begins, concerns that scale is running ahead of results would ease. Conversely, if new large projects continue to be added without clarity on the earlier projects' progress, the gap between announced capacity and actual operating capacity will continue to require attention. Whether the Envision–ju:niz partnership leads to genuine business expansion will be judged by future delivery status and by how Gen 8 actually performs on the German power grid.