As we start 2024, it’s clear that battery storage will play an increasingly important role in the global energy transition, but there are a number of challenges to overcome to enable faster deployment in Europe.
The share of renewable energy in the EU’s electricity system is expected to reach 69% by 2030, according to the European Commission (the “EC”) . The future energy system will need more flexibility, stability and reliability to achieve climate neutrality by 2050 (the European Green Deal). Energy storage provides flexibility. The rapid ongoing deployment of variable renewable energy generation will only reach its full potential with the deployment of additional energy storage. However, energy storage faces a number of challenges that can affect its deployment to the levels necessary to significantly support the energy transition. Some of these challenges are related to a need for a long-term visibility and predictability of revenues to facilitate access to finance.
The need to overcome these challenges was highlighted during COP28, where the Supercharging Battery Storage Initiative was launched by Clean Energy Ministerial, aiming to boost storage development and deployment, and reduce technology costs. The EC is a co-lead of the initiative, which has 3 pillars:
Covering similar themes but going into much more detail, earlier in 2023 the EC adopted its ‘Recommendation on Energy Storage – Underpinning a decarbonised and secure EU energy system (2023/C10301) (hereinafter: the “Recommendations”). This addresses the most pressing issues to help accelerate the broad deployment of energy storage by the EU member states. The Recommendation provides member states with concrete recommendations and action points to help facilitate the fast and broad deployment of energy storage in their energy systems.
The EC made ten recommendations. We believe the most relevant recommendations or issues that member states should take into consideration are:
The Recommendations mark the first time that the European Commission has addressed the relevance of energy storage in an official document so explicitly and with so much detail. It is by far the strongest and most concrete push for the deployment of energy storage in Europe. The most pressing issues and bottlenecks have been addressed, and the 10 recommendations provide a useful checklist for member states to act on.
If you have any queries regarding the Recommendations, please do not hesitate to get in touch with the authors.