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.

Why is energy storage important in the EU?

It can also facilitate the electrification of different economic sectors, notably buildings and transport. The main energy storage method in the EU is by far 'pumped hydro' storage, but battery storage projects are rising. A variety of new technologies to store energy are also rapidly developing and becoming increasingly market-competitive.

What is the European storage database?

With information on assets in over 29 countries, it is the largest and most detailed archive of European storage. While the report is focused on electrical storage, the database holds project information for multiple other storage technologies (e.g. pumped hydro, CAES, gravity, large-scale thermal etc).

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.

What is the energy storage database?

The database includes three different approaches: Energy storage technologies: All existing energy storage technologies with their characteristics. Front of the meter facilities: List of all energy storage facilities in the EU-28, operational or in project, that are connected to the generation and the transmission grid with their characteristics.

What is the energy storage strategy?

2. Calls on the Commission to develop a comprehensive strategy on energy storage to enable the transformation to a highly energy-efficient and renewables-based economy taking into account all available technologies as well as close-to-market technologies and keeping a technology-neutral approach to ensure a level playing field;