What does the European Commission say about energy storage?

The Commission adopted in March 2023 a list of recommendations to ensure greater deployment of energy storage, accompanied by a staff working document, providing an outlook of the EU’s current regulatory, market, and financing framework for storage and identifies barriers, opportunities and best practices for its development and deployment.

How much energy storage capacity does the EU need?

These studies point to more than 200 GW and 600 GW of energy storage capacity by 2030 and 2050 respectively (from roughly 60 GW in 2022, mainly in the form of pumped hydro storage). The EU needs a strong, sustainable, and resilient industrial value chain for energy-storage technologies.

Is European Solar Policy undergoing a structural contraction?

European policy is shifting from encouraged deployment to mandatory deployment, and the window for incentives in commercial and industrial solar is undergoing a structural contraction.

How much energy storage will Europe have in 2022?

Many European energy-storage markets are growing strongly, with 2.8 GW (3.3 GWh) of utility-scale energy storage newly deployed in 2022, giving an estimated total of more than 9 GWh. Looking forward, the International Energy Agency (IEA) expects global installed storage capacity to expand by 56% in the next 5 years to reach over 270 GW by 2026.

Does energy storage need a regulatory framework?

However, for storage to realize its full potential, a robust regulatory framework is needed. In the European Union (EU), the role energy storage plays in EU power markets will be formally recognized in the Electricity Market Design Directive (recast), which is expected to be adopted in Q1/Q2 2019.

What will the EU's energy storage regulatory environment look like?

The EU’s regulatory environment for energy storage is already advanced, but further enhancements are on the horizon. Future efforts will likely focus on fostering battery circularity, expanding hydrogen storage solutions, and optimizing market rules to accelerate progress toward the EU’s 2030 and 2050 energy goals.