Airengy, Hagag Europe Launch 5 GWh CAES Project in Romania

⚡ AI Executive Summary

Two Tel Aviv-listed companies are investing approximately €55 million to develop a compressed-air energy storage plant in Romania using proprietary AirBattery technology stored in salt caverns. The facility will be built in phases, reaching 25 MW discharge capacity and 5 GWh storage capacity, with construction expected to begin in 2027 and commercial operation in early 2028. This project represents an important milestone for long-duration energy storage technologies competing with lithium-ion systems. Compressed-air storage in geological formations offers inherent advantages for deep-cycle applications: lower degradation, decades-long asset life, and independence from commodity supply chains. Romania's abundance of unutilized salt caverns, combined with existing grid connections and established gas storage infrastructure, positions it as an attractive market for scaling this technology. As grids integrate higher penetrations of variable renewables, projects like this validate the commercial viability of geological storage solutions beyond batteries, diversifying the storage portfolio available to system operators managing seasonal and multi-day flexibility needs.