Stay informed with the latest developments shaping the future of sustainability, energy, and tech. From major green investments and breakthrough projects to AI-powered climate platforms and EV infrastructure milestones. Here’s a roundup of this week’s most impactful news and deals across the sector:
Net Zero / Sustainability — Key Industry News
INEOS starts operations at the EU’s first full-scale carbon dioxide storage project
Chemical and energy group INEOS confirmed on 18 September that the European Union’s first full-scale carbon dioxide storage project has started operations — a significant milestone for the EU’s emerging carbon capture and storage infrastructure. The project captures industrial CO₂ and permanently stores it in depleted offshore reservoirs, providing a template for the commercial-scale CCS infrastructure that the EU’s 2040 net-zero pathway depends on to deal with hard-to-abate emissions. The start of operations comes as the EU ETS review — published in July 2026 — explicitly assumes a significant role for permanent geological carbon removal in the post-2030 framework, making the Segal of the first full-scale storage project commercially and politically significant for the credibility of European industrial decarbonisation targets.
The Guardian published an in-depth analysis on 19 September assessing Europe’s summer of 2026 as a definitive “summer of truth” for climate policy, finding that burning forests, rivers at historic lows, and an estimated €180 billion in economic damage from heatwaves, droughts, and flooding have left political leaders with an unavoidable reckoning. The analysis noted that positive policy developments — including the EU Electrification Action Plan and the ETS review — are being outweighed by governments continuing to push for fossil fuels or stalling on climate commitments. With the UN General Assembly and Climate Week New York coinciding this week, European governments face intensifying pressure to translate ambitious climate targets into credible near-term implementation.
France’s Flamanville EPR reactor will shut down on 26 September for a planned 350-day inspection — its longest maintenance outage since entering commercial operation — taking the country’s most modern nuclear unit offline for nearly a year. The shutdown adds to France’s ongoing capacity constraints during a period when electricity demand is rising with heat pump adoption and EV charging, and will place additional pressure on interconnector imports and renewable generation to cover French power demand through winter 2026/27. The outage also has implications for France’s energy security position heading into a period of elevated European gas prices.
Data Centres — Key Industry News
Spanish data centre operator Nabiax broke ground on 21 September on a new 100MW data centre campus in Madrid — its largest facility to date — which will bring its total capacity in Spain to 135MW across Madrid and Catalonia. The groundbreaking comes as Madrid consolidates its position as southern Europe’s leading digital infrastructure hub, with the city attracting growing hyperscale and AI campus investment from Vantage, Merlin, Global Switch, and others alongside domestic operators. The facility will serve colocation and cloud demand from European and international operators requiring carrier-neutral capacity with direct access to Spain’s renewable energy grid.
Plans progress for 200MW data centre in Schladen-Werla, Germany
Plans for a 200MW data centre campus in Schladen-Werla, in the Lower Saxony region of Germany, progressed on 22 September, spearheaded by Green Datacenter Development. The project — which would be one of Germany’s largest single-site data centre developments if built — targets AI and hyperscale workloads requiring large power allocations in a market where grid access in Frankfurt and Berlin has become increasingly constrained. Lower Saxony’s combination of available land, growing renewable energy capacity, and improving grid infrastructure has made it an increasingly attractive alternative to Germany’s saturated primary data centre markets.
European Commission proposes mandatory energy and water efficiency disclosure rules for data centres
The European Commission published a proposal on 22 September requiring data centres above a certain size to publicly disclose their energy consumption, water usage, and efficiency metrics — including Power Usage Effectiveness (PUE) and Water Usage Effectiveness (WUE) — on an annual basis. The proposal is now subject to a two-month scrutiny period before formal adoption. The rules would directly affect the majority of European hyperscale and colocation operators, and are explicitly linked to the Commission’s broader effort to ensure AI infrastructure buildout does not undermine the EU’s energy efficiency and water sustainability targets, particularly as large campus developments draw increasing scrutiny from local authorities and regulators.
Energy Storage — Key Industry News
IPP Greenvolt Power started construction on its Siedlce battery storage project in Poland on 24 September — a 2.4GWh, BYD-supplied BESS that will be one of the largest grid-scale battery systems in Central Europe on completion. Simultaneously, Gore Street, Taaleri Energia, and DS1 moved to construction on projects in Poland, Estonia, and Lithuania respectively, progressing a further 900MWh of capacity across the CEE and Baltic markets. The combined activity underscores the accelerating pace of BESS development in a region that is rapidly catching up with Western Europe in terms of grid-scale storage investment.
RWE and Giga Storage move to construction on gigawatt-hour batteries in the Netherlands and Belgium
RWE has taken a final investment decision on a 400MW/1.1GWh BESS in the Netherlands and started construction, while Giga Storage has broken ground on its 2.8GWh Green Turtle project in Belgium — one of Western Europe’s largest battery storage projects. The two announcements mark a significant acceleration of grid-scale BESS deployment in the Benelux market, which has some of Europe’s highest renewable energy penetration and most active balancing and capacity markets. RWE’s Netherlands project adds to a growing portfolio of grid-scale batteries the company is developing and operating across Western Europe alongside its renewable generation assets.
Nvidia selects three BESS solutions for its new AI facilities qualification programme
Nvidia confirmed on 24 September that it has selected three battery energy storage solutions as part of its new Data Centre Solutions Exchange (DSX) programme — a qualification framework that identifies products and systems meeting Nvidia’s reference design requirements for AI data centre facilities. The inclusion of BESS in Nvidia’s qualification programme is commercially significant: it signals that on-site battery storage is becoming a standard component of AI data centre design rather than an optional add-on, driven by grid reliability requirements, power quality needs for GPU clusters, and the desire to reduce peak demand charges and enable renewable energy matching for large AI campuses.
Energy Storage — Key Deal News
System integrator Fluence and lithium-ion battery manufacturer Eve Energy announced a 206GWh battery supply framework agreement covering the years 2027 to 2031 on 25 September — one of the largest supply deals of its kind ever announced in the energy storage industry. The agreement provides Fluence with long-term supply certainty for large-scale project pipelines in its core markets including Europe, Australia, and the US, while giving Eve Energy a major anchor customer to support its manufacturing scale-up. The 206GWh volume — equivalent to roughly 10% of global annual BESS deployment in 2026 — reflects the scale of capital now committed to the energy storage sector heading into the second half of the decade.
Built Environment — Key Industry News
An expert opinion published on batinfo.com on 22 September highlighted a growing tension in European building renovation policy: the energy efficiency measures most effective at reducing winter heating demand — such as airtight insulation and reduced ventilation — can significantly worsen summer overheating, which is becoming a critical health and comfort issue as heatwaves intensify. The analysis found that nearly one in three renovation audits does not adequately account for summer thermal comfort, risking a situation where renovated homes become dangerously hot during heatwaves. The finding directly challenges the single-metric framing of Energy Performance Certificates and calls for EPBD implementation to incorporate summer comfort modelling as a standard requirement.
Montparnasse Tower: €800 million renovation project rejected by co-owners
The co-owners of Paris’s Montparnasse Tower voted on 25 September to reject the proposed €800 million renovation project — a comprehensive refurbishment of the 1970s skyscraper positioned as a landmark in France’s ambition to retrofit its existing commercial building stock. Co-owners cited concerns about cost, disruption, and return on investment. The rejection exposes a structural weakness in France’s ability to mobilise investment for deep renovation of its commercial real estate stock and highlights the fundamental governance and financing challenges of large-scale commercial building renovation in multi-owner properties.
France: 109 territories supported to accelerate the phase-out of gas and fuel oil heating
The French government confirmed on 25 September that 109 local territories across France are now being supported through the national electrification programme to accelerate the phase-out of gas and fuel oil heating in buildings, in line with the EU Electrification Action Plan published in July 2026. The programme provides local authorities with technical assistance, funding pathways, and coordination support to plan district-level transitions away from fossil heating — targeting social housing, public buildings, and private residential stock. The 109 territories represent a significant expansion of the programme ahead of France’s EPBD National Building Renovation Plan submission deadline of 31 December 2026.
EV & EV Charging — Key Industry News
EU: BEVs made up more than a quarter of new cars sold in August 2026
Battery-electric vehicles accounted for more than 25% of all new cars sold across the European Union in August 2026, according to data published by electrive.com on 24 September — marking the first time BEVs have exceeded a quarter of the European new car market in a single month. The milestone reflects the combined effect of returning consumer EV subsidy schemes in Germany, France, Italy, and Spain, the continued expansion of competitive Chinese BEV models, and the structural shift in OEM product mix as manufacturers accelerate their EV transition to comply with EU CO₂ targets.
Series production of the VW ID. Cross has begun in Spain
Volkswagen confirmed on 21 September that series production of the VW ID. Cross has begun at its Pamplona plant in Navarra, Spain — the first Volkswagen Group electric vehicle to be produced at a Spanish facility. The ID. Cross targets the European C-segment market, competing directly with the Renault Scenic E-Tech, Peugeot e-3008, and Tesla Model Y. The production launch represents a significant milestone for Spain’s automotive industry decarbonisation and is linked to €600 million in investment commitments confirmed at Spanish production sites this week.
Sorégies acquires BP Pulse fast-charging network in France
French regional energy company Sorégies announced on 25 September the acquisition of BP Pulse’s fast-charging network in France, taking over more than 600 high-power charging points from the energy major. The acquisition follows BP’s strategic decision to exit its European retail EV charging operations — consistent with the broader retreat of European energy majors from distributed clean energy assets seen across the sector this month. Sorégies will integrate the BP Pulse network into its existing public charging infrastructure, becoming one of France’s largest regional EV charging operators.
