Can Japan Build a Battery Market? EP. 306

This week on Energy Unplugged, Hugo Batten, Managing Director of Aurora APAC, and Arthur Yanagisawa, Head of Advisory for Japan at Aurora Energy Research, are joined by Virginie Sandilya, Chief Investment Officer of Shizen International and Head of Project Finance for the Shizen Energy Group.  Japan knows it needs batteries. The question is whether the market can build them fast enough.  Investor appetite remains strong, but the industry's biggest challenges are no longer technological. Grid congestion, rising interest rates, revenue uncertainty and increasingly competitive access to transmission are creating new hurdles for developers trying to reach financial close.  Drawing on experience from both the lending and development sides of the industry, Virginie shares her perspective on what separates successful projects from the rest, why bankability remains a central challenge, and how developers are navigating a rapidly evolving market.  In many ways, Japan's battery market has reached an inflection point. Investor appetite is there. The technology is proven. The question is whether the market structure can keep up.  Main topics include:  Why securing a grid connection may matter more than securing financing  Can merchant battery projects attract debt at scale?  The battle between contracted certainty and merchant upside  Could data centres unlock the next phase of battery deployment?