{"id":239906,"date":"2026-07-03T06:15:00","date_gmt":"2026-07-03T10:15:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/testing.news-you-need.com\/index.php\/2026\/07\/03\/video-fluences-lars-stephan-on-what-data-centres-and-cybersecurity-developments-mean-for-bess-in-europe\/"},"modified":"2026-07-03T07:10:09","modified_gmt":"2026-07-03T11:10:09","slug":"video-fluences-lars-stephan-on-what-data-centres-and-cybersecurity-developments-mean-for-bess-in-europe","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/testing.news-you-need.com\/index.php\/2026\/07\/03\/video-fluences-lars-stephan-on-what-data-centres-and-cybersecurity-developments-mean-for-bess-in-europe\/","title":{"rendered":"VIDEO: Fluence’s Lars Stephan on what data centres and cybersecurity developments mean for BESS in Europe"},"content":{"rendered":"

VIDEO: Fluence’s Lars Stephan on what data centres and cybersecurity developments mean for BESS in Europe<\/a><\/p>\n

https:\/\/www.energy-storage.news\/video-fluences-lars-stephan-on-what-data-centres-and-cybersecurity-developments-mean-for-bess-in-europe\/<\/a><\/p>\n

Publish Date: 2026-07-03 06:15:00<\/a><\/p>\n

Source Domain: www.energy-storage.news<\/a><\/p>\n

Author: <\/a><\/p>\n

Using an unordered list, summarize the following article with between 4 and 8 key points. <\/p>\n

New hardware, particularly around grid-forming and sodium-ion solutions, were a key theme over the three days. Sodium-ion especially was talk of the town, following big industry news in the space. Stephan said new technologies are always exciting, but that analytics and software are also hugely significant and less talked about.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe cells are innovating, more energy density is driving cost declines and better performance, and that\u2019s very exciting,\u201d Stephan said. \u201cAnd we can\u2019t not talk about sodium-ion. We\u2019re not quite there in terms of large-scale deployments in Europe or the US, but it\u2019s definitely a technology that will bring benefits to more and more customers.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cBut also digital integration, especially analytics platforms, is a newer trend with external providers supporting many customers, and we\u2019re integrating many of those. This AI-enabled digital element is a key trend we\u2019re seeing.\u201d <\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not headline-grabbing in the same way. If we\u2019re ramping up availability from 98% to 99% because of this, or adding a year of lifetime to a project, that is not headline grabbing but on a project economics basis that still makes a huge difference.\u201d<\/p>\n

Data centres and BESS in Europe <\/p>\n

Another big talking point at the event, as with any clean energy conference or trade show, was data centres. In Europe, the impact of this for BESS deployment has not yet been seen as much as in the US, where data centre-tied projects are increasingly becoming a big chunk of system integrator order books.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe US is indeed a huge market and we haven\u2019t yet seen that same kind of traction in Europe,\u201d Stephan said. \u201cBut the political ambition to increase data centres in Europe is there and once we start to see projects emerging in Europe, they will have the same challenges as those in the US.\u201d<\/p>\n

Those challenges are around getting grid access in sufficient time and capacity, navigating limitations of flexible connection agreements (FCAs) and power quality in light of highly volatile load. In the US, those challenges are leading data centres to deploy vast quantities of generation (often not clean) and energy storage on-site. <\/p>\n

\u201cSo the rationale and the use cases are similar and it\u2019s actually an advantage that we have done a lot of this work in the US already, for example to for master supply agreements with hyperscalers, so we can now bring that into Europe as well, which is very exciting because we have the potential to leapfrog in Europe as the demand for data centre arises,\u201d Stephan explained.<\/p>\n

But, we then asked Stephan, what specifically does the opportunity look like for BESS regarding data centres in Europe? Is it co-location, PPAs or something else? <\/p>\n

Stephan: \u201cI think it\u2019s different, depending on if it\u2019s front-of-meter, behind-the-meter, are we talking about renewable firming or making renewables available to data centres, or is it more closer integration with data centres? Here at Intersolar we have had some exciting meetings around exactly that. Questions like where the battery should be located, how should it be integrated. And we\u2019re getting to a stage where we have more standardised solutions.\u201d<\/p>\n

To that end, Fluence recently partnered with Siemens (one of its major shareholders) and computer chip manufacturer Nvidia to integrate its Smartstack into Siemens\u2019 reference architecture purpose-built for Nvidia AI data centres.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis blueprint is about having an integrated design where all those components come together. So now our data centre developer doesn\u2019t have to pull in those elements themselves, but they can base their work on an existing blueprint where all the components are already integrated,\u201d Stephan explained.<\/p>\n

Cybersecurity <\/p>\n

Cybersecurity, being a policy and regulatory discussion, is Stephan\u2019s bread and butter. We asked him how the discussion around it, vis-\u00e0-vis energy, has developed in Europe in the last few years.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a very interesting topic because it hasn\u2019t been emerging more and more and the last couple of years we have seen revisions and enactment of a number of cybersecurity laws,\u201d he explained.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd today we have a very comprehensive framework from the NIS 2 Directive, Network Code on Cybersecurity, the Cyber Resiliency Act, the Directive for Resilience of Critical Entities. These things address different players in the energy sector, some are for operators, some are more focused on manufacturers, some are for the grid operators.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cSo first of all, we see a stronger enforcement of those rules. The rules are becoming stricter at the European level, but then they\u2019re more strictly enforced at the national level. And actually, I think what will drive enforcement even more is banks and insurance companies expecting certain standards which even go beyond what\u2019s legally required.\u201d<\/p>\n

So the requirements have already been getting stronger, but something coming down the pipe could have even greater implications, particularly around supply chains.<\/p>\n

\u201cA very new development that we have seen now is the draft of the Cybersecurity Act published by the European Commission. And this introduces specific measures around the security of ICT supply chains, communication equipment, and it also refers to energy storage. So it\u2019s really the question about what are the smart digital components and how do we need to secure those supply chains. And the focus here is on geopolitical risk,\u201d Stephan explains.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo we\u2019re no longer talking about technical risk, but about non-technical risk, which is, frankly speaking, basically about equipment coming from China, which is perceived as creating a security risk to digital infrastructure deployed in Europe. So the Cybersecurity Act will probably have a huge impact or has the potential to have a large impact on the industry\u2019s supply chain.\u201d<\/p>\n

On this topic, we also discussed the EU ban on funding solar or BESS projects with Chinese inverters, with both Stephan and Chinese firm REPT\u2019s Andy Tang: see those comments in a separate article here, published during the event. <\/p>\n

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