EU scrambles for energy storage

As renewable energy continues to expand in Europe, energy storage must keep pace to ensure the grid remains flexible and stable. The Energy Storage Coalition urges the European Commission to develop an Action Plan on Energy Storage, providing much-needed regulatory clarity and supporting Member States in scaling up energy storage capacity.

With adequate growth in electricity storage, demand side flexibility and cross-border interconnectivity to help take advantage of abundant home-grown clean power, the EU could reduce fossil dependance, avoid costly energy imports, and protect consumers and businesses from volatile international energy prices.

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.

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.

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.

In March 2025, the Commission launched the European Energy Storage Inventory, a real-time dashboard that displays energy storage levels across different European countries. It is the first European-level tool of its kind and offers energy storage data across a full range of technologies.