English
China Nuclear Huineng raises 7.5 billion, Fluence successfully goes public: Why is platformization the strongest financing story in energy storage?
Created on 11.13
A single project cannot impress capital, but a platform can.
In the energy storage industry, a profound consensus is forming: excellent projects can make money, but only platform-based companies can gain the favor of the capital market and achieve high valuations.
Why can some energy storage companies easily raise billions, while their peers with similar technologies and resources struggle to secure financing? The answer often lies not in the technology itself, but in the different capital stories they tell. Currently, the most powerful narrative in energy storage financing is undoubtedly "platformization."
The Paradigm Revolution from "Project Merchant" to "Platform Provider"
Traditional project developers tell investors a "linear story": financing → construction → operation → recouping investment. This story has a low ceiling, concentrated risks, and is difficult to replicate.
The platform-based companies tell an "index story": they establish a replicable system that can continuously develop, hold, operate, or manage multiple energy storage assets. What they sell is not a one-time power station, but a set of capabilities and channels that can continuously generate value.
This narrative shift has directly led to a disruption in valuation logic: from discounting the future cash flows of a single project to anticipating the growth potential of the platform and the premium associated with its monopoly.
Three Real Case Studies Decoding "Platformization" Financing Practices
Case 1: Boreyke Energy - "Standardized Asset Matrix" on the User Side in China
Company Positioning: China's leading operator and service provider of user-side energy storage assets.
Platform Strategy Analysis:
Boleco Energy has abandoned the traditional engineering contractor's "one project at a time" scattered model, focusing on investing in, constructing, and operating user-side energy storage power stations in industrial parks.
Its core strategy is to package each project into an independent SPV (Special Purpose Vehicle), while the parent company conducts unified management of technology, operations, and capital. This creates a standardized and quickly replicable asset matrix.
Financing Highlights and Insights:
With this "standardized replication" platform story, Borealis Energy completed hundreds of millions in Series A financing led by CICC Capital in 2023. What the capital is interested in is not the high returns of a single project, but the ability to replicate energy storage assets on a large scale and through a platform.
Its success lies in the transformation from an "energy storage system integrator" to an "energy storage asset operator," with its core product being a scalable and financialized service model.
Case 2: Fluence - The Path of a Global Giant's "Technology Ecosystem Platform"
Company Positioning: A global leader in energy storage products and technologies established as a joint venture between Siemens and AES.
Platform Strategy Analysis:
The excellence of Fluence lies in its complete transcendence of the role of a "project integrator," positioning itself as an open "energy storage technology platform."
It provides a full-stack solution that includes energy storage products, AI-driven operational software (Fluence OS), and comprehensive services. Its customers include utility companies, developers, and commercial clients, with revenue sources from equipment sales, software subscriptions, and services, resembling a high-tech company model.
Financing Highlights and Insights:
In 2021, Fluence successfully went public on NASDAQ through a SPAC. The listing itself is an ultimate "corporatization" packaging.
It has completely transformed from a joint venture project into an independent, publicly held platform technology company. This transformation has allowed it to achieve a valuation far exceeding that of traditional engineering companies and to raise substantial funds for global expansion and technological research and development.
Fluence proves that through the construction of "technology + software + ecosystem," the energy storage business can elevate from the heavy asset "project integration" to a light asset combined "technology platform," thereby achieving a higher valuation.
Case 3: China Nuclear Huineng - The "Fund + SPV" Integration of Industry and Finance in State-Owned Enterprises
Company Positioning: A professional new energy investment and development platform under China National Nuclear Corporation.
Platform Strategy Analysis:
As a giant state-owned enterprise, China National Nuclear Corporation's platform-based approach has a higher strategic significance. It is not financing a single energy storage project, but rather packaging its entire renewable energy business sector, including energy storage, wind power, and photovoltaics, into a clear platform company through capital increase and strategic investment.
Financing Highlights and Insights:
In 2022, China Nuclear Huineng successfully introduced several strategic investors, including China Life and State Power Investment Corporation, raising over 7.5 billion yuan.
This substantial investment is not aimed at specific projects, but rather serves as the company's equity capital, used for the rolling development of multiple new energy projects, including energy storage. This greatly optimizes the capital structure, reduces the debt ratio, and lays the foundation for subsequent large-scale, low-cost debt financing.
This case indicates that even state-owned enterprises can achieve equity diversification by placing their business within a clear platform company and introducing strategic investments, which proves the universality and strong appeal of the "platformization" model in large energy groups.
Is your energy storage company a platform?
The capital market is always pricing for the "future." An isolated project represents a certain present; while a platform represents an imaginative growth channel.
For entrepreneurs and business owners in the energy storage industry, the most pressing question to consider right now may be:
Are we selling individual independent "energy storage stations," or are we building an "energy storage asset platform" that can continuously generate stable cash flow?
In your opinion, what is the core key to building a "platform-based" energy storage company?
Is it a replicable business model, a powerful technology platform, or the deep integration capability of industry and capital?
Contact Us
Leave your information and we will contact you.
