The New Wrapped in the Old?
Zenobē’s acquisition of sdp energie prompts another 'episode' on how financing mechanisms are shaping the European BESS markets. We end up in the UK for a glimpse of the future in Germany.
Zenobē’s acquisition of sdp energie prompts us to examine how new corporate, contractual and financial structures are shaping the European BESS markets.
Carlota Perez offers a useful starting point. In a presentation on technological revolutions and the possible shape of a “smart green” future, Perez observes that:
The new paradigm always comes wrapped in the old.
Consider the early automobile, which initially looked like a carriage without its horse.
New technologies do not arrive together with their final business models, institutions or systems of finance. They are first understood through categories inherited from the world they are beginning to change.
Beyond the starting point, Perez provides a useful overall analytical framework to understand grid-scale storage as part of a broader transformation of the energy system linked to what she describes as the Information and Communication Technology (ICT) “paradigm shift.”
And why is a global sustainable golden age possible with the ICT revolution? … [A] lot of people think… “these computers [are] using all this energy.” It's true. We've got to reduce the energy consumed by the computers, we've got to find new ways of designing the batteries, the energy… they are all part of this revolution. But basically the reason why is because dematerialisation and globalisation are in the nature of the ICT paradigm. So to have a global, green, golden age is perfectly possible, because that is in the nature of the ICT paradigm. @ Perez, 48:30.
The sdp example…
Zenobē announced on 27 July 2026 that it had acquired Bavaria-headquartered sdp energie, marking its first significant entry into the German BESS market.
