In this episode of the REM Podcast, host Tom speaks with Laurens van Ochten, Head of BESS at R.Power, a fast‑growing European renewable energy developer specialising in large‑scale solar and battery storage.

Laurens shares deep insights into the challenges of scaling battery storage across multiple countries, while managing market differences, grid bottlenecks and team structure. He also explains why R.Power chose to centralise their entire BESS team.

They talk about:

• Why easy grid access in Germany backfired, and what other countries can learn from it
• How “paper projects” are hurting hiring, planning, and long-term confidence
• Why Portugal is ahead of other markets when it comes to hybridisation
• What makes a BESS project actually work in real-life conditions
• And why bureaucracy isn’t always a bad thing when it comes to project quality

Connect with Tom: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tomessex/

Connect with Laurens: https://www.linkedin.com/in/laurensvanochten/